A bit of a flippant title but hopefully it grabbed your attention.
What do you want to do when you grow up? Or have you fallen into the trap and grown up?
I’m of an age that I am now in twilight of my “corporate” career and the question “what do I want to do when I grow up?” has crept up more and more often of late.
I’ve half-joked for years that I joined the organisation that I’ve worked for all my adult life to make up my mind what I wanted to do when I grew up and decided that I really didn’t want to actually grow up. There’s more than a grain of truth lingering there.
Growing older is unavoidable and to be embraced as too many people don’t get the chance to grow old. As the years have passed, I have done all the usual adult things- I took out a mortgage and bought an apartment with my then boyfriend and when we got married we upgraded to a house, then another house and another, I had children, I became a widow at 53…. all decidedly adult facts of life but at heart, I still haven’t grown up.
My inner child is still very much alive!
Like most children when I was a little girl, I couldn’t wait to grow up. I dreamed of being an author, of being a doctor or a forensic pathologist. I dreamed about meeting rock stars. I dreamed about living in New York and about owning a beach house (that dream is still very much alive but will require a significant lottery win to make it happen.) All the usual things that kids dream about. What were your childhood dreams? Have any of them materialised?
Let’s face it- adulting isn’t much fun at times. We all need something to dream about. Being a responsible adult, especially if you are a parent, is hard bloody work! I’ve done more than my fair share of adulting over the years but I still don’t view myself as a grown up.
I passionately believe that it is all a state of mind. Being a woman in her mid-50’s doesn’t automatically mean that I want to fall into the trap of the “twin set and pearls” look with the highlighted hairstyle to hide the emerging grey. Maybe it’s a Gen X thing but I still wear my hair long in the same style that I have since high school complete with increasing grey strands of glitter. I spend most of my life dressed in rock band tees and jeans along with my trademark Converse. (Everyone who knows me knows of my love of and addiction to Converse. Please don’t ask how many pairs I own.) I’ll happily wander around barefoot in shorts and vest tee all summer long. I love listening to music especially hard rock and heavy metal and yes, I have several tattoos.
Back to those childhood dreams for a moment. It took 44 years but I did finally become a self-published author. I’ve also been fortunate enough to meet several of my music icons on more than one occasion. True, I never got the college/university degree to become a doctor or a forensic pathologist but I have continued to explore and learn alternative, natural healing techniques.
So, to return to the original question, what do YOU want to do when you grow up?
I don’t want to grow up!. I have no intentions of growing up! It’s bad for your mental wellbeing.
I’ll continue to chase those dreams in my jeans and tees while listening to loud rock music and strive for something more important that being a grown up. I’m on a mission to live “happily ever after.”
Anyone care to join me on my mission?
(Image sourced via Google- credit to the owner)
Coral McCallum 