When I grow up I want to be a doctor! When I grow up I want to be a firefighter! When I grow up I want to be a teacher! These are only a few of so many careers that kid say they want to have when they grow up. I am no exception. When I was little I remember telling my mom often that I wanted to becoming a firefighter, a pilot, a lawyer and a cashier. Yeah, I know that last one, eh!
Anyway I remember when I was little, when I would be walking with my mom and we saw a firetruck driving past us, I would always wave to them. One of the men would always wave back at me. I would get so excited and would say “Mommy, he waved back at me!” At the age of, oh I don’t know maybe six, I thought it would be cool to drive in a fire truck and never thought about the extent of what a fire fighter really does.
When I was nine I went on my first plane ride to Disney World. Riding on a plane to and from Disney was great. I thought how cool would it be to be a pilot and be able to go where ever I wanted to in the world. It wasn’t until I started having problems understanding math that I realizing it was my absolute worst subject in school. That’s when I knew becoming a pilot was not happening. Not with all that math that I would need to know!
As I got older I thought becoming a lawyer would be nice. I thought trying to help people would be a nice thing to do. And the fact that I wouldn’t back down in a conversation or argument when I knew I was right about something probably prompted me to want to be a lawyer as well. Even my mom once told me I would make a great lawyer because I wouldn’t back down. At one point in my life I was actually willing to go through all those years of being in school, college and law school. That is until I realized I would be lucky to graduate from High School. Which I eventually did.
Oddly enough while I was in High School I knew I had to get a job. At least a part time job. Yep, I ended up getting a job as a cashier! I worked at a place called RockBottom on 86th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. When I started working there I couldn’t help but laugh. Out of all the dream jobs I had growing up the one I did get was the cashier. On the bright side I did make some nice friends over the years because of that place.
There is one last career I did want. This one was the most important one. This career I had decided I wanted more than anything else when I was in High School. I wanted to get married and have a family. I didn’t care about becoming a fire fighter, a pilot or a lawyer anymore. All I wanted was to become a wife and a mom. The cashier job was just a temporary thing and I knew that. I did have to wait a bit for God to bring that right guy into my life, but he did. And he gave us 3 wonderful children. I’ve been married for 25 years now and still love my husband. Funny thing is, now I can add author to my extremely small career list. I’m okay with that.
Kathleen Smith is an indie Author, blogger and she has her own podcast Kathleen’s Korner. You can read or listen about her life in Brooklyn and Upstate NY . You can also either read or listen to her personal story of how she and her husband kept their marriage together through 3 miscarriages in Miscarriages My Story