To be or not to be?

I was talking to my baby cousin earlier this evening, when she told me that she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up- so that she could give my dad injections. For those of you who don’t know- my dad is a doctor, and happens to be my cousin’s doctor as well.

When she proudly declared her choice of profession and the reason for it, I couldn’t help but remember that I was around the same age when I had declared with equal conviction and pride that I would become a doctor and take over my father’s practice.

But that was not to be; as I think my choice of profession changed several times over the years. I first wanted to be a doctor- I think I was around 4 years old then and this phase lasted till I was 12. At 12 I realised that I wanted to be a veterinarian- again this phase lasted till I was 15. Between 15 and 18 I decided I wanted to be a high school teacher (I love teaching!) or a psychologist. And now I’m 18 and have decided that none of those fields were meant for me. Though I do believe that I’ve decided that I want to write and do something related to communications. I hope this idea doesn’t change!

The point that I was trying to make in this post is that so many of us have such lofty ideas of what we want to become when we grow ‘big’ but now we’re already here. We’re ‘big’ at last and do we really know what we want for sure or are we still bobbing in the pool of uncertainty? Which I think is a good thing because it keeps your options open but really what do you people want to be? And what were your lofty childhood professions?