I want to grow up to be 'something'

People always ask little kids what they want to be when they grow up.

Invariably, little kids want to be like someone they admire — one of their parents or a firefighter or a musician or a rodeo cowboy. I’ve rarely, if ever, heard a little kid express a desire to be someone who can’t put on the white hat of a hero at the end of the day.

Yet, oddly enough, as people age, that question disappears into the worries of adulthood — bills, relationships, and so on — instead of remaining a regular part of their thoughts.

For some people it could be that they have grown up to be what they dreamed of as a kid. For others, it could be that life got in the way of what they imagined for themselves.

Personally, I went through a myriad of ideas about what I wanted to be (some much less feasible than others) and was lucky enough to have parents who indulged the majority of those ideas. What I imagined myself becoming often changed dramatically as my interests changed or were refined.

I am not a resolution maker when it comes to the new year. Not because I don’t appreciate having goals, but because I prefer to think of goals as things that should be achieved and replaced with other aspirations throughout the course of a day, week, year, a lifetime.

This year, however, I found I wanted to think of resolutions in a different way. I wanted to think of them in terms of what I want to be when I grow up.

While I am not a young person anymore, I am hardly old and, to me, that makes it the perfect time to give real thought to the grander scheme of things. My hard-partying ways from college have faded quietly into memory and my tastes in things like literature, music, and films have settled into a recognizable pattern. The great changes in my behavior, personality, and preferences are, I think, behind me.

So, now is the time for me to draw on some of my sturdier personality traits and start thinking about becoming.

I am a great believer in what one is doing in the moment as being the thing they’re supposed to be doing. However, I am also a great believer in having a plan. Whether that is a plan for vacation or life, doesn’t matter, as long as there’s a plan.

For now, the plan is to continue to enjoy what I’m doing both professionally and personally while paying thoughtful attention to what I want to be when I grow up.

Maybe this is it. What a comforting thought.

Pam Robel is the paginator for The Columbia Basin Herald. In her spare time she doubles as a farmer’s daughter, writer, reader, and thoughtful pursuer of being a grown-up sooner or later.