Thursday, June 9, 2011

When I Grow Up

ca·reer [kuh-reer]  – noun
a person's progress or general course of action through life or through a phase of life, as in some profession or undertaking.


When we are children we are often asked what we want to be when we grow up. As children, there are so many basic answers (we don’t yet know that there are thousands of choices); fireman, teacher, astronaut, nurse, doctor... maybe even tattoo artist.
Then as we get older and a little more realistic, our answers become more like paleontologist, lawyer, math teacher, computer programer... and maybe still, tattoo artist.

When I was young I wanted to be an actress. I don’t remember anything other than wanting to be an actress... up until I was in high school.  This is quite laughable now because I have no desire to act AT ALL! Part of me would like to be a singer-songwriter (and honestly, I was once), but acting is not really me. Now my friend, DeeDee... she’s a real actress. She’s in plays all the time and she even went to New York to try and make it big. She’s back in North Carolina now, but she is still a real-life actress.

As a teenager, I really couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to be. But I knew how the system worked; Must. Go. To. College. Almost everyone in my senior class was planning on going to college and I wasn’t gonna miss out on the fun. I eventually decided that I wanted to do special effects makeup for movies. After some research, I learned that it helps to have a degree in cosmetology (especially in the skin care field). So I decided to first go to cosmetology school then move to California and attend a special effects school.
This plan did not work out... life happened and I ended up in a community college studying music education. And I only lasted one semester (I dropped out).

After that I worked at a bakery and eventually as a writer for a newspaper. A few more jobs later and I’m now in customer service. And despite, I’m not at all interested in going back to college. Most people are working in a field other than their college degree. And many people are working superb jobs with no degree. Of course, there are those jobs where you need a degree; teacher, nurse, doctor, astronaut.

I’m not sure what I’m getting at with all this... it could really be just late-night ramblings (it’s almost 2 in the morning).
But I look back sometimes, wondering if the right choices were made and these days, I have no regrets. I’m not an actress. I never mastered the beautiful art of special effects (or a prom up-do). I no longer write art & entertainment articles. I don’t frost doughnuts. I don’t flip burgers.
I’m simply a customer service representative... oh! and I sew bags from my own patterns.

That’s it. And that’s okay with me.

No comments:

Post a Comment