Avital Horowitz - Week 2 - What do you want to be when you grow up?
Growing up, we have all been asked the same question; “What do you want to be when you grow up?” At the time none of us really knew what we wanted to be because we were only kids. As young children, this question was simple to us. We would normally say astronaut or pop star, not knowing how unrealistic those answers were. At the time though, that answer did not really matter because we were only little kids, but today that is all we think about.
It is junior year. This is the year of decisions. “What school do you want to apply for?” “Are you going to take the ACT, SAT, or both?” And of course, the question that was once so simple, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” This question used to be so easy to answer, but now it feels like the most difficult decision of our lives. Life changes too quickly. It felt like only yesterday when my dream for the future was to be a pop star, but now it is all different. Now I want to be a psychologist. At the age of five when I hoped to be like Selena Gomez, I had no idea what a psychologist was, but as life went on and I grew older life started to become more difficult. Those far-fetched dreams of being an astronaut or a superhero faded away once the anxiety and difficulty of life’s responsibilities hit. At the age of just 11 years old, I went to my very first therapy session. I have been going to see a psychologist ever since. My life took a turn for the better. I learned how to control and manage all of those difficult and anxiety-provoking responsibilities that life threw at me when I realized that I was never actually going to be a superstar. Sure, my childhood dream may have been crushed, but I learned something very important. I learned what I wanted to do with my life. I learned that I wanted to help people. I want to be a doctor. I want to save people’s lives from their own thoughts. I want to teach people how to take control during life’s hardships. I want to be a doctor, but not a doctor that tries to tend people back to life. I want to be a doctor that prevents people from needing to be tended back to life. I want to be a psychologist.
When we grow up, our childhood dreams fade and we have to learn how to manage the difficulty of everyday life. This sounds pretty terrible, to be honest, but if you really think about it, if we never had our childhood dreams crushed, we would never find out what we are passionate about. The question, “what do you want to be when you grow up” sounded simple back when we were young, but it was really the question that later changed our lives forever.
When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did that dream ever change?
I can so relate to you because when I was little I had the biggest most unrealistic dream of being a professional soccer player for the US women's national team. I strived for that goal for a while until I realized that, that wasn’t going ot get me anywhere in life. Recently, as I explore new interests I have found my true passion to be a nutritionist since I have been caring a lot about how to take care of my body. I want to use my interest in nutrition and help/encourage others to have healthy diets as well.
ReplyDeleteThe world is a weird place. We're only 16 and 17 years old yet we are meant to make life changing decisions this early on. We are meant to decide right now, in this instance, what we want to spend the next 7+ years of our lives doing. We get sent off to college for four years, and then maybe even grads school for another three to four years, and we are meant to decide what we want to study.
ReplyDeleteI was actually thinking about this the other day. When I was younger, I wanted to be something completely different than what I think I want to do right now. It is crazy to expect people to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives at a young age.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very strange topic to think about. When I was younger, my answer always change from singer, to veterinarian, and even working at a nail salon. Thankfully that dream changed considering I am not exactly thriving in any talents needed for those jobs, but it is interesting to me to think when did this dreams change and why?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little I wanted to be an archeologist, I know, super weird, but it's true. I always thought it looked like so much fun. Indiana Jones made it look that way, same with the Jurassic Park and World movies. I wanted to discover something new and learn history. Now I went the complete opposite way, I'm still not 100% sure about what exactly I want to do, but I have a few options. The one I really want right now is to become a movie director or producer. If not that then I would want to do something with chemistry, but I'm not sure yet. I also think that something to do with linguistics could be something I would want to pursue. I really don't know, but it definitely did change, like you said.
ReplyDeleteUnlike most people, what I wanted to be when I was younger, is still the exact same as what I want to become today. I want to become a doctor. Overtime, I actually thought that this dream might fade away as it does with most people but to my surprise it didn't. What did change though, what the type of doctor I want to become. When I was younger, I also wanted to become a pediatrician who works in an office but nowadays, I want to either become an oncologist or a pediatric surgeon. As I was growing up though, I wanted to be so many things at the same time but a doctor was always my number 1. I wanted to be a doctor, an interior designer, a teacher and a bartender who would work at night. These past few years, I've realized that I can't be all of these things and decided that I should stick to my number choice of being a doctor.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little, probably like most kids, I wanted to be an NBA player. I soon realized that this dream would never come true, and was ridiculous. As I've grown up I have found my true calling in finance. My new dream is to be a hedge fund manager.
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