Huckleberries Online

When I Grow Up

Posted by Cindy

May 22, 2009 9:51 a.m. • 13 comments

My son Sam has a very complicated answer to this question: ”What do you want to be when you grow up?”

He wants to be a columnist for the Spokesman Review (doesn’t that just make you weep?), move to New York and be an actor, then move to Hollywood and direct movies, then move to Arizona (Arizona! Who’d move there?) and write children’s books. Seattle figures somewhere in the plan to0, but I can’t remember where.

What did/do you want to be when you grow up? Me? I have both the jobs I ever really wanted, mom and writer. I just wish the pay was better.

13 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

JeanieSpokane on May 22 at 10:19 a.m.
I will always remember that my little brother wanted to grow up to be a couch. Yes, a couch. Not a couch potato - just a couch.
Jen on May 22 at 10:47 a.m.
I wanted to be a teacher…I just didn’t think it would kindergarten.
poolman on May 22 at 10:50 a.m.
My advice to kids entering college is this: First, figure out what is most important to you. For many it is location. Don’t pursue a degree in marine biology if you’re dream is to live in Montana. Once you have your core priorities dialed in, get on Monster to get a flavor of what REAL jobs are out there and then pick a major that will mesh all of the pieces together -a major that will set you up for a real position in a real industry in a location you are comfortable with. College is really just a long preparation for the first job - (or more school)– a foot in the door so to speak. After that you will naturally go where your talents take you.

I never bought into any of that bull crap about doing what you love. If you pursue a career in something you love you will never work a day in your life – HA. That philosophy has created a lot more street peddlers, carnival workers and fry cooks than it has playwrights, successful business owners and CFO’s.
chatterbox on May 22 at 10:56 a.m.
I always wanted to be a veterinarian. I loved all kinds of animals. My brother & I would bring home strays and nurse them back to health. Then, I had to take organic chem in college. At 7am. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Ugh. And we visited my aunt & uncle in St. Louis. He was a vet. He took me to an emergency surgery on a beautiful golden retriever that had been accidently shot. WIth all his skill and my very limited assistance the dog died anyway. I cried. And changed majors.
toadman on May 22 at 11:11 a.m.
What do I want to be when I grow up? Well, first of all, I don’t wan to grow up. However, entropy is relentless, and it seems I won’t get my wish where that’s concerned. I suppose I can only answer the question “what do I want to be when I grow up” with one simple word.

Happy.
Lynne on May 22 at 11:40 a.m.
After years of a long battle for custody of Rob, he wanted to be an attorney.
After a year of treatment at Shriner’s Hospital, he wanted to be a doctor.
During a brief obsession with Jim Carrey, he wanted to be an entertainer.
Then he wanted to be a college professor/writer
Now he’s in his last year at Gonzaga Law School with ambitions in politics.
scootermom on May 22 at 12:02 p.m.
When I grow up I want to be retired.
Stickman on May 22 at 2:04 p.m.
I really don’t want to grow up, a lot of child is still in me. But like Toad, happy and I would throw in healthy of course.
Sisyphus on May 22 at 2:20 p.m.
My grandpa always used to say that if you got your health you got everything. Then he punctuated this point by dying.
Kage_Mann on May 22 at 2:45 p.m.
Who wants to grow-up anyway? My grandma always used to say: “Two wrongs don’t make a right” and “Be a leader, not a follower”. Great, wisdom.
Me on May 22 at 10:20 p.m.
I grew up watching That Girl and Mary Tyler Moore. I really thought that I was supposed to grow up and go to some City (grew up in Idaho and Montana) and get some job at some sky scraper. I really did think so.

Reality was I didn’t know what I wanted. College was not an option. I learned secretarial skills at a tech school in Missoula, and worked in a dental office, building supply company etc. I took a computer class right after the PC emerged, but they were teaching word processing, spreadsheets, databases. I wanted to know not how to push the buttons, but why when you pushed a button this or that happened.

Eventually I got into what I really loved - computers. I had a knack for finding out why something wasn’t working - software or hardware. So now 20 years later I’m still in IT and feel like I get paid to play. So I try to tell my Son to find something that you love because then it doesn’t feel like work and that is so true with me. I do NOT feel like I’m working I feel like its my calling and I LOVE it.

So poolman I do not agree with you. I found what I loved and persued it and I’m not a street peddler, fry cook, or a carnival worker.
hhuseland on May 23 at 5:07 p.m.
I don’t have any plans to grow up.

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.