A little over a month ago, I wrote about the book from Japan that I read for my Around the World in 80 Books Challenge. It was an autobiography centering around an alternative Japanese elementary school during WWI. It just happened to have one of the best educators ever. He was the man who said this:
Mr. Kobayashi used to tell the kindergarten teachers not to try and fit the children into preconceived molds. “Leave them to nature,” he would say. “Don’t cramp their ambitions. Their dreams are bigger than yours.”
That thought inspired a post about what I wanted to be when I grew up, how and why dreams die, and how ridiculous it is that we allow that to happen.
When We Grow Up
I asked readers to share their own dreams, and they did! Believe it or not, a lot of bloggers wanted to be writers when they grew up. Dreams can come true, even if it doesn’t happen the way we expect it to.
Clicking on each picture/dream will take you to their website. I highly encourage you to click through! Here’s what we want(ed) to be when we grow up:
Your Turn!
What did you want to be when you grew up, and what got in your way? Or were you one of the few who bucked the system and let nothing stop you?
Well, I am pretty far away from my childhood dream profession. I had never imagined I’d be a blogger and had crazy wild ideas of being a commercial pilot and then the biologist who discovered the cure for AIDS. As I grew older, I moved to more ‘easily-acheivable’ dreams and when I was a teenager, I discovered I enjoyed creative writing and poetry. I don’t do serious poetry anymore but I do enjoy fooling around with rhymes, and the creative writing interest has led me to blogging. So I guess, it was nothing super impressive but I’m glad I ended up here…
Don’t discount yourself! The world needs doctors AND the world needs writers. My own path was crooked, as well… I think that’s what most people experience.
Since I couldn’t be a professional student, I settled on the next best thing: teaching! My 7th grade English teacher made a huge impact on my life. She was a lawyer for over a decade before she went back to school to become a teacher. As someone who had previously always been steered towards higher paying and/or more esteemed jobs (I take SUCH issue with this!), I was totally gobsmacked that she charted her career path that way. After teaching 8th grade for 6 years, I’m now a 7th grade English teacher. And it feels so right.
I’d love to be a student as an occupation! I’m glad you found your calling, and that you had such a wonderful role model!
Wow we are on the same vibe today. I really wanted to be an actress or a radio DJ. I’m not exactly that, but I did stick with a creative field. I could though just as easily gone into some kind of preventative medicine, health, or nutrition as well.
The exact same vibe! Haha! I love that you still found a way to make a living in a field that utilizes your creativity, even if it wasn’t your original one.
I hope this post means we’re one step closer to that fictional PF post idea! I seriously loved that! Thanks for including me in your post Femme. I feel like a rock star! 🙂
It’s in the works, but I honestly haven’t had time to touch it in months. I think I’d need a week’s retreat to really get it done! Will keep working… I promise!
I commented on another friend’s blog with the same response. I’ve always wanted to work in law/criminal justice or write. I did the former and I’m working on the latter. It’s been a weird twisted path to get there but I’m getting there.
I didn’t know that! About the prior career that is. And keep pushing for the latter! Our paths are rarely as straight as we’d like them to be!
Thanks, for including me! I’ve been thinking so much about writing lately. How to incorporate more into my daily life and to find that courage to write the book in my head. When I was a kid, everything seemed possible and today it seems like to often I look for an excuse why it’s not possible, which saddens me greatly. There is an ocean of difference between being realistic and fearful and my excuses fall solidly in the fear camp.
Dang, that’s profound, Tanya!
Like many of you, I wanted to become a writer. My version of writer was a sort of homesteading, mother of many children, living in a small community (about 100 years behind the times) writer. Of course, no such person would have time for writing, but I was a big fan of Anne of Green Gables : ) In small ways, I have managed to write over the years, but never enough, and never as a way to earn an income. Very cool post, Femme!
I loved Anne of Green Gables, too! And don’t say never… Just not yet!