Why didn't I think of that?

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" is such an easy question for grown ups to ask a child. It will generally illicit an amusing or thoughtful response that allows the grown up the opportunity to either continue the conversation, or smile indulgently.  My earliest career goals were alternately lofty and impractical.  Having grown up in a small Indiana rust-belt town, the pinnacle of success to my five-year-old sensibilities was the carhop on roller skates at Kunkles' drive in.  I would be that car hop, but I would do spins and turns as I delivered burgers and shakes, amazing all who saw me. The idea that such athletic skills would garner more tips, and the understanding that car hops work mainly for tips had not entered my untutored little brain at that point.

Being horse crazy without benefit of a flesh and blood horse, I moved on from my car hop career to exploring the life of a jockey.  This was well before women had entered this particular field of equine adulation and at this point my parents were becoming concerned.


These were still the days when parents, having been raised in the 1920's and 1930's, had firm ideas of what constitutes appropriate 'boy careers' and 'girl careers.' My parents had worked hard for their college degrees, earning the necessary funds themselves.  My mother, in particular, had forsaken her dream of being a writer or journalist for the more practical nursing degree since this was an education partially paid for by the state.  It was amusing to them that I had wanted to be a car hop since I was only five years old.  But now we had moved to St. Louis and there were more suitable 'girl' career possibilities just waiting for me to explore.  Being a jockey was not on their list of suitability.

As happens with so many people, the guidance and support of someone for whom I had great respect guided my ultimate career decision.  My Girl Scout leader, Elly Wright, a journalist herself, strongly encouraged me to go to journalism school.  I did.  Although, instead of print media, I chose broadcast media just as women were starting to enter that field.

Mine was not a storied career.  I generally enjoyed what I did, but at a television station in Wichita I suddenly had my journalistic 'light' extinguish when having to return to the home of a family who had lost several children in a pre-Christmas plane crash.  My camera kept malfunctioning and my news director insisted I keep returning until I got the story.  It was disrespectful and inhumane.  I evidently resurrected my humanity while losing my journalistic quest.  Although it is not lost on me that the lives of the good people of Wichita would not be changed one way or the other due to my stellar report on this horrific loss of life.

Throughout the years that followed I was able to parlay the journalism degree into other jobs such as hospital marketing and private school admissions.  But these were just jobs, not careers or activities of passion.  They were paycheck jobs, although I truly believed in the mission of the private school for which I worked.

And that brings me to today.  I have been paying attention to friends who are in their second and third act careers.  They moved from what they had chosen to do in their youthful 20's, and the necessary family raising years, to what they really want to do in what may be their last...or second to last..act.  I have also been paying attention to my daughter's career and those of her friends.

They are doing fun and exceptional things!  Several have been taking classes and are now high school counselors, having been secretaries and accountants before.  One young lady who had no idea what she wanted to do, having graduated in English literature studies, went on to graduate school in archiving and is now an archivist for a presidential library.  A friend in her early 70s goes to China every summer, teaching English in one of the provinces.  My mother, the Registered Nurse, has an interesting fourth act giving talks to organizations on the lives of the First Ladies of this country and their influence on their husbands...and the nation.  One friend found herself the chairman of an Italian American organization that has lead to an interesting position with an Italian company to entice American business investments in Italy. My daughter is a passionate, skilled math teacher, having moved from a degree plan that involved international relations.  Her future is still an open book, but her skills and passion have her perfectly poised for an outstanding contribution to society.

And my second (or third) act?  So many options!  I have no idea at this point where my wanderlust will lead.  I need to find passion that will mesh with skills and interests.  I need to find this magical mixture very soon! Time's a wasting.