Sunday, February 3, 2013

When I Grow Up, I Want To Be A ...

I wrote this post last week and meant to share it then .. My bad!!

For the majority of our lives, we have some sort of idea of what we want to be when we grow up. Even myself, who hardly thinks of the future (bad, I know!), had some kind of hope for what I wanted to do for a living.

When I was four, I wanted to be a ballerina.

When I was six, I wanted to be a teacher.

(I was a very original little girl .. Ha!)

When I was eight, I wrote my first short story (though it was long for my age - six pages!) that got lots of praise from my teacher, and I fell in love with writing.

When I was eleven, I started writing a book series and dreamed of one day moving to Los Angeles to be a famous author.

When I was in seventh grade (so .. 13?) I still wanted to write, but was told by a source that will remain nameless that there was no money in writing (translate: no career) and my dreams were crushed.

From that point on, I kind of wandered..

I thought maybe I'd like to be an actress, but, well, I kind of sucked at acting. But then I thought I could be a screenwriter .. And though that is still a HUGE dream of mine, to one day write a movie and get to watch it come to life .. I quickly gave up on that one, since I'd been told there's no money in writing

So after years of dreaming of possible careers, I shelved any ideas I had. Got a well-paying (yet not great) job, I married the man of my dreams, and we now have the two most incredible little babies. My husband's career flourished .. And mine ..

I'm 27 now and finally, I've decided what I want to be when I grow up. I fell in love with nutrition on my healthy lifestyle journey and had my sights set on being a nutritionist. After doing more research, I realized I wanted more than that - and started looking into being a dietician. I'm a little freaked out overwhelmed by the amount of school I have ahead of me (I need a minimum of six high school prerequisites before I can even apply to the university program, or twelve for another program of interest!). If only I could kick my sixteen-year-old butt right now into NOT dropping all those science classes!!
I actually had to ask what "vectors" was ...
I'm anxious to get started, nervous about the years of hard work I have ahead of me, intimidated at the thought of ME?! going to university .. And afraid that I will struggle with balancing student life, mommyhood, wifedom and work life.

But I'm keeping my head up and taking it one day at a time. I'll keep my eye on the prize (dietician! A university degree! A career I can be proud of!) and remember that I can be inspiring my children to follow their dreams too (although I fully intend to start that process waaayyyyy before they turn 27!! If at nine years old, Boy Lego wants to be a cowboy? I'll sign him up for horse riding lessons, yee-haw till the cows come home, and buy him the cowboy hat of his dreams!!).

Today's lesson: No matter how much work it'll take you, no matter what age you are? Follow your dream. Do what it'll take to make yourself happy. There will be long hours, tons of homework / papers, lack of sleep, and more studying than ever ... YOU are worth it! My dreams are WORTH it. 

So .. When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up? :)

6 comments:

  1. A vet! Which continued until 4th year Biology in university when I decided Psychology was MUCH more interesting and more suited for me!

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  2. I think the first thing I thought I wanted to be was a Vet. Helping animals. My mom and dad were not very encouraging. They never told me I could be anything I wanted instead they said your grades are not that good and maybe you should consider being a Vets Assistant. My parent were old fashioned and saw girls as nurses, not doctors. I don't say that to Bailey. I tell her the sky is the limit. Be what your heart tells you to be. If you want something bad enough you will find a way to get it. I love my work I do now. Helping people is very rewarding work too. I hope that in the future I can volunteer with a rescue society out here. I have my eye on MARS an aviation rescue place. Dreams should never die, but sometimes they have to be postponed.

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    1. I need to be careful with my response .. But I'm in the same boat, not a whole lot of encouragement to pursue my dreams and to just do "what's easiest" ..

      I love what you said, dreams should never die, just be postponed!

      You're a wonderful Mom, telling your daughter she can be all she can be! Even if my kids want to be the silliest or most unrealistic things, I'll encourage them right to the end!

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  3. Your picture above is precious. My friend at peace, love and lo carb is having a facebook FitFamFeb photo contest. You should enter. That is the cutest!!!

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