What Do You Want to be When You Grow Up?

Recently, a girl a few years younger than me asked me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” She was being partially facetious, and partly serious, mostly asking what I wanted to do with my life.

The question caught me off guard. I guess it wasn't something I had really thought about in a while, so I stopped and I thought…

•  As a child I wanted to be a ballerina. My parents paid thousands of dollars for years to put me in ballet at one of the best local schools. I even reached the point where I did point work. When I got older, I started paying for my own classes, I've been in some ballet productions, and even just a couple of weeks ago I performed onstage at my most recent ballet recital.
•  When I was a pre-teen my mother carted me around to chorus and acting lessons, giving me a taste of theatrical performing. And when I was seventeen, Mom took me to my very first audition. After that show, I was constantly in theatre for years. Even now, on my own, I’m back on the stage. The love has never left me.
•   As a young teenager I decided that I wanted to be a writer. I wrote six full-length novels (we are talking around or over 300 pages apiece here) between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. Now, I’m not saying they were good or well-written, but they were good practice. Now here I am, years later, with a Creative Writing degree under my belt, and a wonderful job in that same field, writing magazine articles with many of my own works published.

…And I answered my friend and said, “I've already become everything I ever wanted to be.”