When I Grow Up...

When I was little I wanted to be a veterinarian. I held onto this dream for so long that I even went so far as to choose Latin as my language in high school because I thought it would help me with the medical and animal terms I would need to learn later in veterinary school. 

I can't remember when the dream died. I still love animals, and I have many that live with me, but I changed my focus to writing at some point in high school. I joined the newspaper staff my sophomore year and loved it. It was my reason for going to school. It was a pretty prestigious high school paper and I got state-wide and national awards. I even went on to major in journalism as an undergrad. 

Every year in my preschool classroom, I compiled pictures and videos from the whole year and presented it on the last day as a DVD yearbook. Each parent gets a copy. One of my favorite parts of the video is when I ask the kids what they want to be when they grow up. Here is an example from one year. 

Link to "When I Grow Up" Video

 

When I do this project, I let the kids say whatever they want. I don't want to influence it, even if what they say they want to be when they grow up is fairly unattainable (i.e. the butterfly). I have had so many thoughtful and interesting answers to this question over the years. For a while, there were a few kids who wanted to be a Power Ranger or Spiderman. One year, one boy said he wanted to be a volcanologist, which at the time I would say was true. He loved volcanoes (as do I, so he and I talked about volcanoes a lot that year). One girl wanted to be a dog. I must admit, that thought has crossed my own mind at times. They do have the life if they fall into the hands of the right owner. 

Now, when I answer this question, as I often do for the video, I say that I want to be an astrophysicist. If I went back and did school all over again, that is where I would go. I love space exploration and the existential crisis I have every time I think of the vastness of the universe. And then I start thinking of string theory and the possibility of parallel universes and my mind explodes. I love it. 

The truth is, though, I love being a teacher, whether it be of preschoolers, undergraduates, graduates, or professionals. No other profession allows me to delve into my many interests and passions as much. Though, arguably, I could have pursued many different interests in journalism by reporting on them, but you get there faster in the world of teaching.