20 Things I'd Like To Be When I Grow Up

When we are children, we all have crazy ideas about what we want to be when we grow up. Dinosaur hunter, space explorer, mime artist. Friends and relatives ask the question, we provide an answer, they all laugh, shake their heads, comment on our brightness and/or precociousness, and predict we're going to be famous someday.

But somehow, with each passing birthday, these dreams get left by the wayside, eliminated by these same friends and relatives, and yes by ourselves too, from the list of potential careers we could pursue: these ideas are too impractical, too improbable, and sometimes just too "out there".

Money, stability, "prestige", and social conformity all come in the way of us doing what we're truly passionate about; sometimes the barriers that we may face in an unknowable future are set up so early in the process, that we aren't even able to ever properly define and identify our true passion from the fuzzy mess of multiple things that simply excite us.

Recently, this topic has been coming up again and again in conversations I have with disparate groups of people. I've always been interested in cinema and advertising, so most would say that an undergraduate degree in Film and a career in media/marketing would make me a pretty satisfied person. But I still feel like something is missing, like I'm not fulfilling my true potential. Maybe it's just a Gen Y thing, and it's a case of getting bored by everything too quickly. But something tells me my dissatisfaction with my career runs deeper than simple capriciousness.

Something is missing; and as I prepare to graduate from my masters program, into an imploding economy with too little opportunity for too many bright minds, I cannot help but contemplate the ideal future for myself. Funnily enough, when I think about what it is I really want to do - not what will make the most money; what will provide stability over the long-term; what will be the best use of the education I have invested time and money into; what my parents will approve of; or what my high school "friends" who bullied me into my current low self-esteem will be jealous of (alright, that doesn't really weigh in so much, but I do get a kick out of it) - but just what I really want to do in an ideal, perfect world? I come up with these silly, whimsical things. It's like being a child again, imagining the world is your oyster and that you actually deserve everything in it.

So I decided to make a list. This is my list of things I wish I could do if the world would just go away and following your dream was an accepted way of life. It isn't a comprehensive list, but it's a start. And of course there are skills and careers I admire - gymnasts, ice-skaters, swimmers, astronauts, scientists - but these are things I really just want to be.

1. Actress.
2. Film director.
3. Professional dancer.
4. Singer.
5. Author, maybe of children's books.
6. Copywriter. (I tried this path and chickened out.)
7. TV show host. (I tried this path but the TV station went bust.)
8. Radio show host. (I tried this path, with a 12am-1am slot, and I sucked. But I think it was just nerves.)
9. Songwriter. (I tried this path and still write songs with my buddy in NYC who is a singer and musician. It was our dream to release an album but I went to film school and he sold his soul to become an investment banker.)
10. Interior decorator.
11. Photographer.
12. Teacher, maybe high school English or Drama.
13. Cartoonist.
14. Wedding Planner, even though I don't really like weddings anymore, my super organizational skills would work like magic here.
15. Ooh yes, magician. Although ideally I would just be a real witch, not just a person pretending to make coins disappear.
16. Chef, maybe a pastry chef, possibly a cake decorator.
17. The person who gets to name all the crayon and paint colors.
18. Owner of a stationery/arts/crafts shop.
19. Arts and crafts maker, possibly cards, but otherwise a maker of creative, pretty, silly things out of random, useless things.
20. Meteorologist.

Who knows if I'll ever actually do any of these things, maybe I'd like to dabble in them all without actually having a career in any of them. But I'm glad I wrote these down someplace. Maybe something productive will come out of it; maybe the stars will align and some of these dreams might come true; maybe this list will turn into one of those "25 things" memes on Facebook? ;)

In any case, this is my list and I'm proud of it. You should make one too.