I don’t know what got me started on this. Maybe hearing my son say he’s debating between being a ninja and a space ranger. (Can we say too much Power Rangers? 
) But last night as I lay in bed, I thought about all the jobs that crossed my mind–some serious, some not–as I grew up. This is only a partial list too. I see this as healthy. I think my husband sees this as flakiness. LOL! What do you think?
1…. Flight Attendant–of couse it was still stewardess then. And I can remember the first grade picture book that had all the pictures and the stewardess had on a blue uniform. I liked the fact that she could fly anywhere. I wanted to do that.
2…. Wonder Woman–The woman knocked me to their knees in more ways than one. What wasn’t there to like?
3…. Buffy–But then I grew up and met Buffy. Wonder Woman, alas, had to go. Buffy could kick major butt and barely break a sweat. Besides, she got to hang with Angel and Spike. So, yeah, wanting to be Buffy had serious potential.
4…. Quicny–no laughing, please. Yes, there was a brief time, when being a forensic examiner seemed way cool. With CSI still hot, forensics still seems fascinating. In Quincy’s case, I discovered you had to take a saw to a corpse and that basically killed that idea for me. Dead bodies, body fluids, um, there’s got to be something else.
5…. Doctor I did consider medicine. I liked school and studying. But you need to be able to deal with blood and pain to be a doctor. It didn’t take much soul searching to know that wasn’t for me, at all.
6…. Model–I think every girl runs up against the glamour machine. It doesn’t take long to realize it’s a world of illusion, where the false is given more importance than reality. And let’s face it, no way was this bod going to fit in any of those slinky outfits. So modeling got jettisoned pretty quickly.
7…. P.I.–So, Rockford got beat up quite a bit. Check out Remington Steele. Who wouldn’t want to work with a mysterious guy that looked like Pearce Brosnan?
8…. Cruise Ship Director–C’mon. Tell me you didn’t watch the Love Boat and think Julie had the coolest job. Thing was, I couldn’t quite figure out how one became a cruise director. They didn’t seem to list that in any of the college guides.
9…. Professor–This was one of my more serious considerations. I majored in Spanish and gave serious thought to pursuing a Masters and PhD to teach at the college level. I just wasn’t keen on all the emphasis on publishing that university teaching requires.
10…. Journalist–I think if I had attended a large university with a journalism program, I may well have ended up in that field. I went to a liberal arts college and headed in a different direction. But, I’ve always had a love of the written word.
11…. Bilingual Education teacher–With my major in Spanish and my experience teaching in Japan, I did consider pursing a Masters that would qualify me for bilingual education. California, though, was restructuring its programs as were many states and the status of the field was too uncertain. I suppose if I’d really wanted to do it, I would have gone for it. But, again, I made a different choice.
12…. Lawyer–For a long time in high school, I really thought I would go on to be a lawyer. Instead, I got an MBA. What was I thinking?
13….Writer–I devoured books as a child. Authors seemed like these magical people who could create these fantastic stories. I always ended up in writing endeavors like the yearbook or college newspaper, but writing fiction seemed to belong to “other” people. It took a long time to realize I had it in me to create stories that readers would like to read. I may be late coming to the game, but I can honestly say that I’ve finally found my fit.
Tell me what you wanted to be when you grew up.
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