When I Grow Up

{Print from Jenzet}

The question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” always made me cringe. Somehow, it always seemed so limiting. Like there’s just one answer- a multiple choice test with only one box to fill in.  In high school, I had high hopes for that questionnaire they hand out-  identifying strengths and possible career matches. Instead, I was horrified to see my counselor had marked my golden ticket as “hotel hospitality”. Luckily, I dug a little deeper and realized that since I’d actually only been to a couple hotels in my whole life and I much preferred academics, teaching was a better route for me.

And so, I became one. I remember my first month into teaching special education, after graduating college and moving on to a great big city, I thought to myself, “is this it?”  Although I desperately loved teaching & it filled a certain void...I still wondered, “what now that I’ve checked the box?”

Jumping forward a half decade and now a mother to a three year-old, the idea of what to be when grown up burdens me even more. Just the other day someone asked my son that very question.  No doubt they were attempting the somewhat difficult task of small talk with a preschooler but my son looked at me with serious concern and confusion.  He said  “just pick one thing?”  After mulling it over for a second he replied, “a construction-worker fireman space guy with a motorcycle.”

I smiled gleefully and thought, “hooray!”

That’s it. The wisdom of a 3 year-old addressed my personal conflict; Am I still a teacher now that I stay home with him? Have I erased that box and checked a new one, a stay at home mum? Or how about crafter? Or more officially, small business owner? Since I have a bum knee can I still call myself a runner?  At this moment and five months pregnant, do my dorky exercise videos qualify me as an athlete?

Yes. To “all of the above.”

In my son, dressed in his cowboy hat and chaps sitting in the laundry basket turned rocket ship, I can clearly appreciate my journey- and the various titles and labels and characteristics it brings.

Because I’m checking my own boxes...as many as I want.