Career Choices and Growing Up

My teen aged daughters are getting to the age where adult pressures are starting to work their way into their lives.

They are being asked frequently by friends, neighbors, & teachers the dreaded question of "What are you going to be when you grow up?"

Since I still don't know the answer to that same question, I've been interested in watching my girls' thought processes as they work on their own personal answers.

When first asked that question, my oldest daughter told her friend that she plans on marrying a rich guy who will let her stay home and go shopping. Since the friend who asked her that question was of the male variety, he was a bit offended at her attitude and asked other pertinent questions like, "What will you do if he dies? Or if he loses his job so you have to help support the family?...etc."

That actually helped get her thinking back to reality and she has since decided that she wants to be a middle-school p.e. teacher.

I'm not sure how she made the leap from 'kept woman' to 'gym teacher', but it works.

My 5 year old daughter, when asked about her future she said "When I grow up, I'm going to be a woman. And I'm going to marry a man who always says 'Yes'."

I guess she liked my oldest daughter's first "career" choice.

In thinking about careers and how one decides what direction to take on that path of life, I thought of some jobs that I wouldn't mind having...and a few I would absolutely hate.

Everyone knows that a meteorologist on the news would be a fairly low-stress job. You study the weather, you make your predictions based on the years of knowledge you gained at school, and then when it snows after you promised sunny skies your job is still secure because you are dealing with 'Mother Nature' and not an exact science. In other words, you can be horribly wrong and still keep your job.

I could totally love a job like that.

What people might not know is that being something like a comedian would be really hard. Sure, to your friends you are funny. Your co-workers laugh hard enough to do spit-takes during lunch breaks at something you say. You even find yourself thinking funny things more often than not, and trying not to suddenly laugh out loud at something that struck your fancy.

But think about it. A professional comedian is always expected to be hilarious. Someone says they are a comic for a living and the person they are introduced to says "Really? Say something funny."

Talk about pressure.

Or they are on stage at a comedy club and the crowd that night just doesn't 'get it'. The best joke in his repertoire gets blank stares or courtesy laughter when two days before in Des Moines that same joke brought down the house.

Even a meteorologist can be funny in his delivery of the weather, but he doesn't get hecklers insulting his mother because his 30% chance of showers ended up being more like a 30% chance that you won't have your basement flooded in the deluge of water pouring from the skies.

I know my examples are cliche.

Everyone makes jokes about meteorologists and their uncanny ability to get the weather wrong. Those same jokesters also think that being a comedian would be an easy job--sleep late, think funny things all day, get paid to stand on a stage and make people laugh at the stupid things your brain came up with that day.

I suppose I should have picked two more obscure occupations to blog about and avoided the cliches...

But I was feeling cliche-like today, so I'm going with what works for me. :)

I'm glad my oldest daughter decided on a career to focus on. She is already a giant step ahead of me in that sense.

My kids are growing up with focus and direction. I am realizing THEY were my focus and direction, and now I need to do some growing up too.

I hate that.

I have put off deciding what I want to be when I grow up until the very last possible moment.

If I could get a job as a professional procrastinator, I would be their most excellent employee.

Until that "dream job" opens up, I guess I will figure out what I like to do and go from there.

Maybe it isn't too late to grow up to just be a woman...and teach Doug to always say "Yes". :)

(Right...and maybe the weather guy will hit 100% accuracy on his forecasts this year...)