I have often been accused of collecting jobs. My friends sometimes tease me for being the single biggest reason for unemployment in the US. It’s true, I do have a job or two....(or six), and may in fact have a job addiction. Malakai says he would send me through a 12-step program if he wasn’t completely convinced that I’d come home with another job as a therapist. (Total sidenote: I actually applied for a job at an addiction clinic once, and the idea still intrigues me.) In my defense, what self-respecting traveler can honestly say they haven’t been excited about a new experience? I simply take things to the next level. Instead of getting excited solely over new destinations, I get excited about new experiences, new skills, and new perks.
After all, who wants to die having never worked the graveyard shift at WalMart as a creepily enthusiastic cashier? It’s 3a.m. and they are creating bizarre stories about what your shopping list says about you:
2 bottles of wine; sparkling, white, cheap.
1 hatchet; sharp as the devil himself
1 box of strawberries
Freaks.
Serial killer much? No. It was an actual purchase though, made on our first anniversary no less, but that story gets its own blog entry. Truly, fact is stranger than fiction.
Recently, Malakai and I were discussing where my impulsive habit of collecting of jobs, titles, and certifications comes from. We’ve decided we blame the parents. Not just my parents or his specifically, but parents in general--the collective OUR parents. We blame the habits of generations of adults who told their children daily that they could be anything they wanted to be when they grew up.
I imagine the phrase, “You can be anything you want to be when you grow up,” started with the advent of the New World. Early America was a symbol of new beginnings and endless opportunity. The phrase would have been meant to inspire and encourage--within reason of course. A woman in blossoming America could aspire to be a nurse, but the phrase was probably not meant to suggest that she should become president someday.
Somehow, over the years, the phrase evolved and developed a more literal meaning. Today, girls aspire not only to be nurses, but also presidents, astronauts or CEOs. Whereas past generations were raised to aspire to the phrase, to use it as motivation and encouragement, my generation is the first to state it as fact. You truly can be anything you want to be. Period. There are no qualifiers, assumed or implied.
My generation may be the first to take the phrase even further. Not only do we state that we can be anything we want, but we also don’t limit ourselves to only one decision. You can be anything and everything you want to be when you grow up. Don’t like your profession? Change it. Want to be a doctor AND a lawyer? Go for it. Maybe you feel like being a circus performing backpacker while moonlighting as a wine Sommelier. The more the merrier.
Thus, my resume is completely filled with current jobs and it reads like the end credits from the Lord of the Rings.
So let me ask you again…
What do you want to be when you grow up?
After all, who wants to die having never worked the graveyard shift at WalMart as a creepily enthusiastic cashier? It’s 3a.m. and they are creating bizarre stories about what your shopping list says about you:
2 bottles of wine; sparkling, white, cheap.
1 hatchet; sharp as the devil himself
1 box of strawberries
Freaks.
Serial killer much? No. It was an actual purchase though, made on our first anniversary no less, but that story gets its own blog entry. Truly, fact is stranger than fiction.
Recently, Malakai and I were discussing where my impulsive habit of collecting of jobs, titles, and certifications comes from. We’ve decided we blame the parents. Not just my parents or his specifically, but parents in general--the collective OUR parents. We blame the habits of generations of adults who told their children daily that they could be anything they wanted to be when they grew up.
I imagine the phrase, “You can be anything you want to be when you grow up,” started with the advent of the New World. Early America was a symbol of new beginnings and endless opportunity. The phrase would have been meant to inspire and encourage--within reason of course. A woman in blossoming America could aspire to be a nurse, but the phrase was probably not meant to suggest that she should become president someday.
Somehow, over the years, the phrase evolved and developed a more literal meaning. Today, girls aspire not only to be nurses, but also presidents, astronauts or CEOs. Whereas past generations were raised to aspire to the phrase, to use it as motivation and encouragement, my generation is the first to state it as fact. You truly can be anything you want to be. Period. There are no qualifiers, assumed or implied.
My generation may be the first to take the phrase even further. Not only do we state that we can be anything we want, but we also don’t limit ourselves to only one decision. You can be anything and everything you want to be when you grow up. Don’t like your profession? Change it. Want to be a doctor AND a lawyer? Go for it. Maybe you feel like being a circus performing backpacker while moonlighting as a wine Sommelier. The more the merrier.
Thus, my resume is completely filled with current jobs and it reads like the end credits from the Lord of the Rings.
So let me ask you again…
What do you want to be when you grow up?
RSS Feed