What We Thought We Would Be

The first time I ever remember someone asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up was way back when I was in grammar school. The question kind of stumped me, because at that time the farthest I was thinking ahead was to a softball game after school.

So I did what most kids did and just said whatever came to mind. I think I said that I wanted to be a lawyer because the night before I had watched a TV show with a lawyer in it and that sounded like as good a thing as any to say. Sure, I want to be a lawyer.

Of course, I forgot about that as soon as they got done asking me about it. Not once in my life did I ever think of going to law school. Heck, there were more important things to think about, like softball or basketball.

Then again in high school, they asked what I would like to be and what I wanted to major in when I went to college. At that time, I was just getting acquainted with the charms of the opposite sex. Why would I want to think about what class I would like to take in college when I wasn't even done with high school?

I have no clue what I answered then. Maybe newspaper reporter because I used to deliver newspapers, and I used to read them all the time, and the one I delivered had a great columnist by the name of Mike Royko. Back then, when you rode the subway or the bus home from work, you could tell that everybody was reading his column because they had the paper folded back so that they could read the left side of page 3, which is where Royko's column always was.

So at some point, I chose majors in college and chose jobs when I got out of college, then every so often, I chose to change jobs and change careers when something looked interesting.

There were times when I set goals and then achieved them and then moved on. Then I would choose some other career goal and achieve that.

Sometimes when we look back and reflect on what we have done and remember all those times when we said things about what we thought we would be, we notice that we still have time to choose again.

I figure I will live to be 150, so I haven't even had my midlife crisis yet, so I still have time to think about what I would like to be.

Yes, it has changed several times already. But hey, who says you only get one chance to choose in 150 years?

All these vitamins and supplements they keep coming up with keep working so well that maybe if I take enough Horny Goat Weed, vitamin C and Niacin I can live to be 250. Why not? I still have plenty of time to think about what I would like to be!