The Future

Ah yes oh internet, it's time to talk about a teenager's favorite point of conversation-the future! Since I could speak I have been bombarded with this age old question:

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

And when one was four, it was quite acceptable to tell the adult in question that one wanted to be a dinosaur. Dinosaurs were the greatest- they could eat things and lay eggs and according to The Land Before Time they could even speak! Once one reaches the age of 17, however, it is no longer acceptable to say that one wants to be a dinosaur. If that is one's true heart's desire, one often says:

"I want to be a paleontologist."

"I want to be an archaeologist."

"I want to be a museum curator."

or if one wants to pretend to be a dinosaur in their free time at college by engaging in illicit activities

"I dunno."

So what does this say for me? Well I wanted to be a vet or doctor until I was 14. I thought:

"Gee helping people and animals sounds so much fun! I can pet all the pets and cure diseases from people and I can make the whole world turn into one big happy sparkling rainbow!"

Then I realized that vets have to euthanize pets, and doctors have to deal with bleeding, vomiting, dying people every day. EVERY DAY. These are not rainbow jobs. These dreams became non-dreams pretty quickly.

At fifteen, I decided I wanted to be an actress. This dream has stayed in the back of my mind since then. And it never exits my mouth in serious company. Because I imagine the exchange would go something like this:

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"An actress."

Conversation partner proceeds to snort drink up nose during ensuing laughter

So the conversation usually goes:

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Well, I'm looking into rehabilitational therapy of some kind. I'm looking into going to the University of Minnesota: Twin Cities and majoring in some pre-rehabilitational therapy program. There's also a program at the Guthrie Theater where I could intern and possibly double major with Acting."

Which really means:

"I want to be an actress, but this program is a long shot and I'm using rehabilitational therapy as a backup plan so no one will call me a failure if acting doesn't work out."

Because what other career involves potentially being paid to pretend you're a dinosaur anyway?