Monday, July 12, 2010

What do YOU want to be when you grow up?

When I was younger and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up the answer was always easy, but never the same. Sometimes I would say “a model!” in my over eager squeaky pre-teen voice. Other times I would say “a scientist” in an effort to justify the freaky experiments I used to conduct in my bedroom (I am normal, I promise! No one ever got hurt.). The most frequent, however, was my heartfelt dream “I’m going to be a writer.” Or journalist, I said one or the other; point is I wanted to base a career on utilizing the English language and earn a living off nothing but my words. I no longer want to be a model (I’m not tall enough…) and I most certainly have no interest in being a scientist, but I have not quite pulled my head out of the writing cloud.

Now when people ask me what I want to do with my life they expect a more definitive answer. My dad’s friends want to hear that I am going to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer, my sisters friends all ask why I am not perusing the performing arts as well, and my mum’s friends… well she doesn’t really have any friends. (Just kidding mum!) In any event I no longer have my idealistic view of life and now my only answer is “I have no idea.” It’s about that time, however, where I should decide these things. Or I should at least make an attempt to. I suppose when applying to colleges and choosing a major they would be less than pleased if I said ‘When I grow up I want to be just like Allie Brosh! (Hyperbole and a Half) or Charlie McDonnell (Charlie is so cool like)’

I took AP Psychology this year and in a sleep-deprived stupor I even allowed myself to think ‘maybe I want to be a therapist…’ I then envisioned some of my future sessions:
Client: “There is this girl…”
Me: “Ew.”
Client: “I think she’s the one.”
Me: “10 bucks says she isn’t!”
Client: “But she makes my life worth living.”
Me: “The window’s right over there. If she’s all you’ve got worth a damn I suggest you do yourself a favour. We’re on the 21st floor, the drop should give you some time to think.”
I imagine, however, that after that first session my nice 21st floor office would be taken away and my license would be revoked.

All roads seem to lead back to writing. I even wrote a book last year. A friend recently told me I should get my work published, but as I said it’s just a dream. Dreams don’t really come true, now do they?

1 comment:

  1. They DOOOO! They CAAAN! You and I will move to NYC and become famous fabulous writers and the world will love our biracial talents. You can write and I can write and edit and design stuff. And we'll have a super professional blog where we post our coolest stuff. This'll be AWESOME!

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