When I Grow Up...

I read a post this morning on the lovely Ms. Jenson's blog, Daydream Believer about what her top career dreams were when she was a kid, and it got me thinking about everything that I've wanted to be through the years. I know I'm still pretty young, and my goals may change again within the next few years, but it's funny to think about some of the ideas that I had. My dream careers through the years have been:

-Baker. This was the first job I ever remember wanting; I think it was because I liked helping my mom in the kitchen, and at five I realized that if I was a baker, I could have cookies and cake whenever I wanted! What a life! I've since realized that me having a bakery would be the worst idea ever, since I hate waking up early and I don't want to weigh 300 pounds.

-Teacher. This is a pretty common one, and it's come back to me a few times. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to teach elementary school. When I was in high school, I thought for a while I would be a high school English teacher. Now that I'm in college, I've considered the idea of being a professor. But I always realize that I would be a horrible teacher, because little kids would drive me insane and I really don't like teenagers that much (I didn't even like high school kids, really, when I was in high school). Undoubtedly, once I'm out of college for a few years, I'll realize that being a professor would be bad as well.

-Journalist/Author. This has been one that I've varied on throughout the years. I'm a strong writer, and I always thought I would do something with that, but I'm not good enough to make a career out of being a journalist, and I'm not creative or diligent enough to be an author. For a while I also talked about being an international correspondent (and this was at the time at which I was first picking a major, which was extra stressful), but I think that was mainly because I was so anxious to get out of Deposit and travel the world.

-Actress. For quite a while in late elementary and middle school, I was determined to make it in the bright lights of Hollywood. I did a lot of stage acting during this time, and I'm a good actress and I really enjoy it. But the logical side of my brain always took over, and realized that I would never make it as an actress, and that there's no job security in it. It's funny, because now a lot of my friends are theatre majors, and I admire them so much for being so dedicated. I'm also really glad I'm not majoring in it, because some of the things they do in studio are ridiculous, and the majority of the people would drive me absolutely insane.

-Singer. Similarly to being an actress, when I realized that I was a decently good singer, I thought, "I'm going to be a STAR!" Yeah...it's not likely.

-Cashier. Like Ms. Jenson, I always wanted to be the person running the cash register at the grocery store. The laser scanner was the coolest thing ever, and I always whined at my mom to let me use the self-checkout, once those came around. I got the opportunity to be a cashier girl when I worked at the Big M last summer. And you know what? When it was busy, it was just as much fun as I always thought it would be. I loved the pressure of a line, I got to talk to people, and check things out fast, and there's something so satisfying about bagging groceries properly. I'm weird, I know, but I honestly loved cashiering.

Right now my plan is to be a clinical psychologist. I think I'll be good at it, but who knows? My plans might change and I may end up doing something completely different. I guess we'll see...