This is an updated version of a post that I shared in September of 2012. Things have changed quite a bit since then, but I thought it would be fun to rework this for Finish the Sentence Friday!
A couple of times recently the Princess has announced, “When I grow up, I will get to do whatever I want!”
I replied to this, “Ok honey, you just keep thinking that.”
And maybe she will, being the confident little thing that she is.
I can’t say that’s necessarily true for me. In the last few years, as I have gone from preschool teacher to school associate to red cross flunkie to writer/librarian, I have had several people ask me what I really want to do someday. The truth is I don’t know. I have no idea what I really want to do when I grow up!
That’s right. I’m almost at the big 4-0, and let’s face it, I don’t feel like a grown-up.
As a child and a teen I wanted to be a teacher. That didn’t pan out well, now did it? I guess being a published writer is my next goal… In time grasshopper, in good time.
The Princess has told me on several occasions that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. Or a cowgirl. They’re so close, don’t you think?
The Professor thinks he wants to be a baseball player. This is new, because up until this announcement he has wanted to be a race car driver like Jeff Gordon. But then again, he has also informed me that he will take over for one of the school’s fourth grade teachers when she gets too old to teach. Hmmmm… that easy, huh?
I must admit that I admire my husband for the fact that he has always known he wanted to be an engineer, even though it took him a long time to get there. I guess that’s how you know you’re a grown up, you know what you want to do?
Therefore maybe I’m not really a true grown-up?
Hmmmm… A lot of grown-ups have bucket lists. Someone recently asked me about my bucket list. I guess I really don’t have one. I have joked about taking pictures of different buckets and putting them on here. I guess I don’t really have one because the things that I really want to do seem so out of reach. I’m horribly, horribly practical. Lack of money can really do that to a person. If you can’t have dreams, then what is worth reaching for?
Isn’t the bucket list what you want to do before you kick the bucket? Well I don’t necessarily have a bucket list. I just have some things that I would someday would like to do. Horribly impractical and probably will never happen. But perhaps if I am to be “real” grown-up then I need to have this list!
- I would like to learn to play the cello. And the guitar. I’ve tried to play the guitar on my own, but I really need lessons for a grown-up.
- I would like to see another Broadway musical. Or two.
- There are so many places I want to go. I want to see mountains. I just want to drive to see mountains. I don’t have to stay. I just want to see them. But then again there are so many places I want to go. I want to see Seattle. I just want to go there. I think it would be cool. For that matter, I have never been west of Nebraska, and I have been in a lot of places! I would like to go back to Maine (where I am from) with my husband so he can see it too. I want to go back to Chicago (where I lived nearby for a short while as a child) and see all of the museums and Shedd Aquarium. I would love to go back to Disneyworld, but this time with the kids. I’ve been there several time, I just want to take them once. And the biggie-I want to go overseas. I have never been out of the country except for Canada. I want to go to Australia and China. I WANT TO LEAVE IOWA.
- I want to go back to school. But of course, I have to figure out what I really want to do. Therein lies my problem…
So that’s really it. I don’t want much, do I? 🙂
Or perhaps I shall just not be a grown-up at all.
Well said, Mr Depp, well said.
(This is one of many nice quotes and images from Quotes Factory, click on the image to take you to the website.)
The most unexpected part of being a grown-up is… not being able to do whatever I want when I want.
This post is part of Finish The Sentence Friday, cohosted by these very lovely ladies:
Can I Get A Bottle of Whine With My Morning Quiet Time?
Janine’s Confessions of a Mommyholic
and special guest host Left Brain Buddha
Please visit one of the wonderful co-hosts. Maybe you have something you’d like to share just for the occasion? If so, LINK IT UP! 🙂
The Sadder But Wiser Girl 
I loved your kids’ answers as to what they want to be when they grow up. When my daughter was six, there was a period when she wanted to be a teacher, a Build-A-Bear worker, and a Hooters waitress. Ah, to have dreams…
My mom is 64. When she grows up, she wants to be an Apache helicopter pilot. 😉
The World is your Oyster! I hope you will be published one day:) That is one of goals as well. Good Luck!!
When I was about 6 I used to like watching hospital dramas on TV, and I told my family I wanted to be a doctor when I grew up. They hung onto this idea like a bulldog with a bone for the next 10 years, even though I showed no aptitude for maths or science and had a fear of being around sick people. I think what I actually wanted to be was an actor who played a doctor on TV… or maybe the person who wrote the hospital dramas. 😀
Good god, can that man be an sexier? Sorry. He was the last thing I saw so the only thing on my mind. *drool*
Cello? COOL. That would be amazing. And yes to the mountains…..*sigh* I love the mountains.
Broadway is overrated but I’m with you on the travel. I want to see all 50 states. That would be amazing.
Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll move back to Washington, and you can come stay with me. We’ll spend as much time in Seattle as you like, and all you need to pay for is the flight. BOOM. Bucket list item checked off.
I love your conclusion.. I find it definitely applies to a lot of situations in my life too. I also don’t know what I want to do (besides being a published writer). I also don’t feel “deserving” of my respectable age… My husband, too, always knew what he had wanted to be. I can really relate to this post, my friend!
I still don’t really know what I want to do either. But being a cowgirl would be really cool, so Princess is onto something there. I hope you get to leave Iowa this year for a mountain vacation. Or Australia.
I’d be happy with going to a neighboring state at this point. Or just no snow, let’s start there.
Although I did have the opportunity two go to Spain twice when I was in high school, I’m definitely with on on wanting to add some stamps to my passport … which of course would entail my having to renew my passport … 😉 I’d like to go to Maine too, if for no other reason than to dig up a wild blueberry bush and bring it back to NY with me. I grew up in MA around a LOT of wild blueberries. I really miss that. My nose was so tuned into them, I could be driving with someone and suddenly say – pull over! Everything nearby seems to be those big flavorless cultivated blueberries. If you get there before me, pick some for me. 😉
Wow, Spain? That is very cool!
I will definitely eat some blueberries for you!
Your last statement says so much. We think as kids that when we’re older we’ll be able to do whatever we want when we want. And yet here we sit not doing so many of those things. Growing up is hard.
Growing up pretty much sucks. Except that we can have wine. And that is good.
I totally don’t feel grownup either… or at least I don’t feel old! And my daughter also wants to be a cowgirl!
I think it’s a Toy Story thing! HA HA!
I always wanted to be a cowgirl too, but instead I ended up broke as a joke doing odd jobs for years. Hey, at least I still have my blog……
At least as a cowgirl you get to ride horses! My blog may be the only evidence I did anything worthwhile on this earth…
I’m too busy being Peter Pan to ever grow up! Don’t do it as it’s highly overrated.
Being a grown-up sucks!