When I Grow Up I Want To Be…

         
            What did you want to be when you were growing up? What wondrous, unfettered dreams first took hold in that developing cerebral cortex of yours? Maybe you can’t quite recall. Long time ago, right?

            I’d be the same way were it not for an irreplaceable store-bought scrapbook my mother kept entitled "My School Years." In it my mother archived the class pictures, report cards, notes, even height and weight statistics from my long-ago grade school years. It may be quaint and antiquated now, but going through its contents now always makes my past and my present come alive, if only for one reason.

            At the end of each school year, each chapter if you will, is a little section where the student could complete a simple statement:

            WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A –

            There were little boxes next to given occupations, and one could simply put a checkmark in any one of them. Understand, this was a different time, so the choices offered were, to say the least, clichéd. If you were a boy, did you want to be a Fireman? Policeman? How about a Cowboy or an Astronaut? If you were a girl, was it going to be a Nurse, a Secretary, an Airline Hostess? If so desired, a girl could even check the box declaring her intention to become a Mother.

            Ah, the choices we could make.

            According to the book, in the First Grade I wanted to be a Scientist. The following year my vocational interests apparently drifted a bit. That year I wanted to be, of all things, a Private Investigator (a write-in vote). By the Third Grade I decided to give myself some options – I wanted to be either a Fireman or a Football Player. Maybe both.

Sure, why not?

            Well, in case you haven’t already guessed, none of those choices came remotely close to fruition for me. Hell, I never even played high school football.

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"The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why." 

                                                                                                             -- Mark Twain

Back in my formative years this was a playful little exercise, nothing more. But now in my more mature mind it raises a deeper question - why do some people come to know what they want to do with their life’s work and actually achieve it, while the rest of us struggle and bounce around for years trying to find our 'calling,' if indeed we ever do?

           What triggers that fateful light bulb to flicker on for some and not for others? Divine Intervention? Karma? The way one particular strand of DNA molecules happened to wrap around another? Or is it something a little more down-to-earth, like parental guidance and good education, mixed in with some hard work and spirited determination?

I’m not talking about Mozart-like prodigies or millionaire athletes. I just want to know how and why some wonderfully average people come to find their ‘thing’ with such certainty early on in their lives.   

Why? Because I wish I would have had such a revelation.

            That's not to say that anyone has an easier road just because they know what they want to do. We all have our struggles, our highs and lows, our lucky breaks and dead ends. No free passes when it comes to that. Nor should there be.

And not everyone needs to have that magical, mystical 'aha' moment in order to lead a productive and fulfilling life. But it stands to reason that, much like taking a long vacation trip, those who know ahead of time where they want to go have an advantage over those who simply get in the car and start driving, hoping against hope they’ll come upon their ‘true purpose’ before it’s too late.

            I write these words not as a scientist, fireman or former football star, but rather as a man of steadily growing years who is still learning, still wondering, still looking for that special road sign that might point me in the direction of doing my life’s work.

So what do I want to be when I grow up? I guess only time will tell. And like it or not, maybe that is the best answer of all.

             

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"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle." 

                                                                                                             -- Steve Jobs

 

           

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