Zora Neale Hurston reading.
Cleaning out the attic, I came across essays my children had written at age 10. My son, citing advantages such as a good salary and the versatility of a law degree, said he would like to be a lawyer, even though "there is a lot of pressure on lawyers" and"you have to go to school for a long time." Josh is now a prosecutor in Michigan.
My daughter chose being an author, citing facts like "You can even be a map writer but that should be considered in a different report" and "To clear up another point, you needn't have any special clothes, and the equipment bears down to a pencil, pen, typewriter and paper." Also, "Really, that concludes this report. I, myself, think that being an author shall be an interesting career." Megan is a writer today.
When I was ten, I wanted to be a missionary. We know how that went.
What about you? What did you want to be at ten?
34 comments:
I wanted to be a writer. And a teacher. I don't remember when exactly, but somewhere in my youth, I knew that it was likely I wouldn't be able to support myself as a writer, so I decided to be a teacher until my writing paid the bills.
And here I am. =)
I have no clue. By the time I was 12, though, I had decided that I wanted to be a history teacher. I was writing stories by then, but the idea of doing so for a living hadn't occurred to me. It was just fun. (It still is.)
A missionary got to travel. That was my motivation more than religion.
At 10, I don't think I had completely forsaken my notion of becoming Spiderman.
I wanted to be a dancer but could never master not tripping over my own feet.
You must have enjoyed climbing. The Supermans enjoyed jumping.
I still want to be a dancer.
I wanted to be a newspaper reporter. I went to Marquette University as a journalism major. But in my sophomore year, one of my J-School professors told the class: "Newspapers are doomed. Books and magazines aren't far behind." I changed majors the next day.
I'm pretty sure I wanted to be a writer at that age, but librarian was always high on my list, too, and I've been both. How interesting that both of your kids followed through on their preferred occupations. So few people do.
Insightful guy.
I hope they weren't pushed into it!
I remmeber a school project from when I was about that age, report on the occupation you'd like to pursue. I chose commercial airline pilot. This was before I knew I had a blind spot in one eye, a pathological fear of heights, and issues with motion sickness.
The playing middle linebacker for the Steelers thing didn't work out so great, either.
it's nice when we can dream unrealistically. The ability disappears pretty quickly I think.
I'm with Corey on this one, Except I wanted to be Batman
Now that makes perfect sense given your stories.
I was torn. Astronomer, marine biologist, radio programmer (I made up interesting-to-me schedules, heavy on drama), interviewer, writer (of fiction and much else).
Patti, you seem to be responding to some comments that haven't popped up yet...
They seem to come up out of order but I think it's probably jet-lag. Can you get it without crossing time zones?
At ten, I just wanted to be left alone...it was not a time for dreams.
I wanted to ride horses with my hair flying behind me. And I wanted to live in the country.
WM-My husband said much the same thing.
Now that's a good dream to have, Debra,
I definitely wanted to be a writer.
"When I was ten, I wanted to be a missionary. We know how that went."
Wha? It was a complete success, you spread the word of fine crime fiction.
BTW, a professional skateboarder...and I never turned the corner and became even half-way decent.
I dread the day I see my grandson coming down the street on one. They seem horribly dangerous but then I worry about my thirty-something daughter riding her bike in Queens.
I wanted to be a lot of things, at 10 I think Archaeologist was still at the top of the heap.. Helicopter pilot, Deputy Federal Marshal, and Police Officer were all things that I dreamed about.... being a writer was always in the back of my mind but because school was such a challenge and I received Special Education Serviced for having a motor visual learning disability, was excused from spelling education and was told over and over that I would always need an editor.... I never thought that I would or could make a living writing.
I was similiarly limited. I was basically told a librarian was my only safe bet. Not that there's anything wrong with being a librarian.
I believed all of this until ten years ago.
Hell, my friends are still trying to get me to be a lawyer or a librarian. It's hard for me to insist I wouldn't be suited for either.
Coming from a family of lawyers, it doesn't suit a lot of personalities.
Librarians are poorly paid but if there was ever a job with no stress...
"Librarians are poorly paid but if there was ever a job with no stress..."
Strangely I work at a public Library (yep I do security at a library) and it's not really that low stress of a job...now someone working in a obscure university library that might be low stress.
Oh, I've worked as a Circulation Aide in a public library, and have since worked as private librarian...you might be surprised how much stress gets stirred up.
As soon as I typed it I knew it was the wrong thing to say. Let me say this. Librarians at suburban libraries like mine seem quite relaxed but maybe it's a trick of the eye.
Second try. Clearly librarians have a more stressful job than anyone knew. I guess financial restraints make it difficult now.
I wanted to be a major league baseball shortstop, not a NHL player, which was odd for a Canadian boy who had just moved to a small town north of the 53rd parallel where it was ten months winter and two months bad skating. Perhaps I should had dreamed about becoming a dog sled musher.
In Detroit, it's probably equally divided between basketball, baseball and hockey for ten-year olds.
Post a Comment