What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

Real Talk Vol. 52

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Honestly?

I don’t have a fuckin’ clue.

I thought I would’ve figured it out by now.

When I was younger, I always had an answer.

Then life happened.

College happened.

Reality happened.

Somewhere along the way, the answer kept changing.

Nursing sounded interesting.

Then I remembered science existed.

Anatomy?

Respectfully…

No.

Then it was speech pathology.

Teaching.

Criminology.

Nail tech.

More ideas came and went than I can count.

None of them felt quite right.

Now I work in corporate.

If you had told seventeen-year-old me that, I probably would’ve laughed.

Because I never saw this coming.

And maybe that’s the point.

Life doesn’t always unfold in a straight line.

Sometimes the thing you end up doing isn’t even on the list you made for yourself.

I think there’s so much pressure to discover your “dream job.”

Your forever career.

Your one true calling.

As if everyone is supposed to have the answer by twenty-five.

Or thirty.

Or forty.

But what if the answer changes?

What if you change?

I’ve realized there’s nothing wrong with exploring.

Trying something.

Learning from it.

Moving on if it isn’t for you.

Every experience teaches you something.

Even the ones that don’t last.

So if you’re feeling behind because you still don’t know exactly what you want to do…

Welcome to the club.

You’re not failing.

You’re figuring it out.

And sometimes that’s exactly how careers are built.

One interest.

One opportunity.

One unexpected turn at a time.

Who knows?

The thing you’re meant to do next might be something you’ve never even considered yet.

That’s reason enough to stay curious.

–C