What Did You Want To Be?

Yesterday I sat myself down on the couch and told myself I could not get up until I had made some serious headway on the presentation I'm delivering at the women's conference in April. I've worked on it several times, but it struggled to be born. {Writers, you know, often compare the delivery of words to birth.} I hadn't reached freak-out level yet, as I still have a few weeks before I have to actually present it, but I really wanted it done in advance so I could learn it well before that day.

Apparently I listened to my own time-out because by the time I finally took a shower about 3 in the afternoon, the bulk of the presentation was written.

Much tweaking remains to be done, but here's a happy dance for having it on paper in some form.

ANYWAY. Since I won't know the women I'm speaking to this round, I crafted a bit of a get-to-know-you session, and that took me on a little trip down memory lane regarding my early life goals. And that, of course, led to me just getting curious about your early life goals!

My first career choice {as told to me by my mother...I don't actually remember this} was to be a zookeeper.

{Yeah. This is as close as I get now. And this took some mental convincing.}

Stop laughing. Actually, don't stop laughing. It's laughable. I love animals as in cats and dogs. DOMESTICATED cats and dogs. Lions? Tigers? Anything that moves quickly or makes a loud noise or could be remotely considered dangerous? Scared. Out. Of. My. Ever. Loving. Mind.

What on earth made me think I wanted to be a zookeeper? Mom said that in my explanation to her, I said it was because I didn't want to go to college, and apparently in my kindergarten minds, zookeepers didn't have to go to college. I did actually go to college {NOT to be a zookeeper}, but I won't lie: I wasn't crazy about going. So apparently some things never change.

The first thing I remember wanting to be was a singer. Specifically Sandi Patty.

I had all her cassettes {EEK!} and memorized her VHS tapes {eek again!} and wanted to sing just like her. I learned every song, her part AND the background vocals and I sang in my room right into the tip of my curling iron. This was my favorite song. 

Little hiccup to that plan. Can't sing. Some dreams just dies.

But guess who did show up in three separate locations on three separate days of our first anniversary trip?

So once I let the singing/world tour dreams go, I decided I wanted to be a nurse.

Little problem. I don't do fluids, germs, or emergencies. And then of course, we're back to the prolonged education thing.

I did, however, participate in a photo shoot at IWU once in which I wore scrubs for ads for their nursing program. Of course I can't find any of those photos right now, so you'll have to settle for the floor display of my business look. But being a nurse on a billboard was the beginning and end of my medical career:

And then...my final career choice was to be a teacher. My parents both worked in education, so it was just sort of a natural flow, I suppose. And truthfully, had the whole education system not started to derail when it did, I believe I might have actually followed that career path. {Funny, isn't it, for someone who dreaded college?} But I watched my parents as the system began to change and decided it was not the place for me.


I do still love to teach and have done it in other capacities {Bible studies, speaking, this blog, etc.}, but it never became my career.

Know what never made it on my "when I grow up" wannabe list? 

Financial Aid...

...and...

radio. :)



Funny how God's plans are TOTALLY different than ours, isn't it??



So now you have to tell me: what did YOU want to do when you grew up? And did you?