Are You Living The Life You Dreamed Of?

When I was 5, I wanted to be a checkout lady at the supermarket. (This was before politically correct titles were important) Plus, no men did that at our market. They were stocking shelves. Remember this was 1963.

I remember playing “supermarket” in our basement. My friends were the shoppers and I pretended to have a cash register. Hitting the “keys”, sliding their “groceries” along the counter. Bagging stuff up. I felt so efficient and important!
I’m not sure I shared that career goal with Dad and Mom. They fully intended me to attend University.

Around 6, I decided to be a librarian. The thought of spending my days in a library seemed like heaven to me. This was before my parents divorce. I was still spending weekends in the downtown Toronto library, with my Dad. Just the smell of books was enough to make me happy. Still is.

By 7,  I’d changed my mind. There must have been a school project that asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

My mother got such a kick out of it, she saved it. Then I saved it. It’s stored with the hand prints, locks of hair and flotsam of childhood, that parents save.

 

It’s printed in pencil, on ruled paper, in the jerky hand of a child. I wrote my dreams for the future. How I wanted my life to be and my world to look, when I grew up.

The synopsis:

When I grow up I will be married.

I will have a little boy with brown hair. He will be smart and handsome.

I will have a little girl. She will be beautiful and smart.

Notice the sexist order I used at 7?

 

Well… I went to University. I majored in Psychology, simply because it required the least amount of math.

I got married.

I gave birth to a brown-haired son who is smart, kind and handsome.

I later gave birth to a blonde daughter who is smart, kind and beautiful.

As an adult, I’d never planned to have career. As an adult, I always aspired to be a wife and mother.

 

In my 40’s I became a Certified Image Consultant. It was a blast and I finally got to use my Psychology training. Score!

Then at 54 I decided I wanted to be a blogger and write.

I didn’t grow up to be what I wanted at 5 or 6. But my 7 year old’s dream came true.

 

What did you want to be?