What I Wanted To Be When I Grew Up

It’s funny to see what I wanted to be when I was growing up and what I ended up doing with my adult life so far.  My mom used to keep a journal when we were younger and she wrote down that I wanted to be a ballerina when I grew up.  This is hilarious, considering I’m anything but graceful and ended up being a huge tom boy.

Here I am in my ballerina stage…all girly for my birthday party.

I also wanted to be a gymnast.  I grew up competing from a young age and really liked it, but quit gymnastics to pursue soccer when I was 11.  Club soccer was very involved and expensive.  So I decided to pursue that route.  I wanted to be a soccer player when I grew up at that point.  It was my thing.  You know those shirts that say “Soccer is Life – I eat, breathe, and live soccer”?  Well, that was me.

Additionally, in elementary school, specifically 2nd grade, I knew I wanted to be a teacher.  I loved school and my 2nd grade teacher made me want to be a teacher.  She was so nice and I wanted to do what she was doing.  My mom also taught school and I think that inspired me to go that route also.  I worked with kids since I was 14 years old and LOVED them. 

When I was in high school I got my first burn out of playing soccer. Specifically with the ODP stuff (Olympic Development Program).  This is when I realized I loved the game, but wasn’t sure I wanted to do it as a living.  So I continued my passion and ended up going to college to play it.  Soccer was my ticket to a great university, where I could get my teaching certificate and a Business degree (Education wasn’t a major at SMU during my time and I had a business side of me that I wanted a degree for in case I pursued that route…plus SMU is one of the best places to major in Business and I didn’t want to pass that up).  The only way to play after college was to play overseas and I knew I didn’t want to do that.

As well as wanting to be a soccer player, a teacher, and a Business woman, I was drawn to “homemaking.”  I loved everything there was about making a home.  I wanted to be June Cleaver.  My mom didn’t have that traditional role, although she did stay home the first few years of my life and was home often when I was growing up (she was a pre-school director), so I’m not sure where I got that desire.  One of my favorite movies was Leave It To Beaver.  I remember the day I decided I was going to be a stay-at-home mom.  I was in the SMU library doing research on Education and the increase in working moms.  It was then I decided I would stay home with my kids when they were young.  I had never been so certain of a job in my life. 

Fast forward two more years and I NEVER would have thought I’d be a graphic designer.  A birth statistics sign created in Power Point for friends’ baby showers grew into a business and a passion of mine.  I’m extremely proud of this journey as I literally started from scratch.

It also showed me that God has my life in control.  I used to worry about planning out my future and how I would be making money.  People ask me if I’ll go back to teaching when my kids are in school and I’m pretty certain I won’t do that.  It’s my financial security, but a job that I can’t do well with a family.   But who knows.  I now know God will certainly take care of our needs.