What I Wanted To Be When I Grow Up

When I was younger, I would regularly be asked: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. Now I’m almost 30, I thought I would take a look back at my answer(s).

I wanted to be a lawyer.

I wanted to be a professional skateboarder.

I wanted to be a fireman.

I wanted to be a doctor.

I wanted to be an actress.

I wanted to be a police woman.

I wanted to be a professional baker.

I wanted to be a nurse.

I wanted to lighting technician.

I wanted to be an author.

I wanted to be a vet.

I wanted to be a mummy.

I wanted to be a teacher.

I wanted to be a scientist.

I wanted to be a stage manager.

I wanted to be an artist.

I wanted to be rich.

I wanted to be an astronaut.

I wanted to be a playwright.

I wanted to be a nursery nurse.

I wanted to be a carer.

I wanted to be happy.

I have only managed to become one of these, sure, I came kind of close to some of them, but swiftly changed my path.

And that’s okay.

I have never been one of those people who seems to have had a specific career goal their whole life. Throughout my life, I’ve genuinely thought about “being” all of the above, at one point or another. Now I’m working in adminstration for an adoption agency, and hoping to maybe earn a little bit of money from writing creatively on the side. I’m also embarking on a degree in creative writing from September. None of this was in my plan, in my vision (or, let’s face it… many visions) of what I imagined my life to be like when I turn 30. But again, thats okay.

As children, we have so much pressure put on us to decide what we want to be.

Who really knows that, at such a young age? My parents are very nearly 50, and they probably still don’t know what they want to be when they “grow up”! Because the truth is, we don’t really grow up. We age, we grow emotionally and physically, we learn and challenge ourselves and we constantly change our minds. But behind all of this, over the years, a little part of our childhood still clings on — fearful of the big bad world and confused about the path we should be taking.

And. That’s. Okay.

Wherever we are in the world, whatever plans we currently have for ourselves, whatever our ambitions or dreams or realities, it’s okay to change our minds. And it’s fine to not know what we want to do or where we want to be in 5, 10 or 20 years time.

As I mentioned, I’m only one of the things on my long list of potential goals, and that is happy. And honestly, it’s the most important and life changing aspirations on that list. I also hope that is the main goal for others too, it’s the most achievable and the most meaningful.