"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

I can recall going through elementary school and even junior high, and sometimes even now, being asked this question by everyone and everywhere. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I remember when I dreamed of what now seem impossible things and my teachers would smile and nod their head as if what I said was practical. My questions are; what changed that thinking? What shifted our wildest dreams into practical outcomes?

When I was little I wanted to learn at least six different instruments. I remember trying to learn three different languages all on my own. I wanted to play all the sports; volleyball, ballet, be a cheerleader, track, wrestling, basketball, tennis…etc. I loved school. It fascinated me. Learning was fun. Science was beyond interesting. Learning about bugs, the earth, and the universe…it was like another world. Reading didn’t come easy at first but I never gave up. Although I was the last one to read in my class I quickly became the fastest reader and got the highest comprehension scores, but that didn’t matter to me. Getting lost in a story was all the fun. Math challenged me and I craved the addiction of becoming better. History made me want to travel the world. Learning was a magical and wonderful gift. But now I look around me, at all my peers, and all I hear is how done people are with school. Everyday someone mutters a complaint about teachers and homework and tests. I see the people who have given up completely and others who try so hard yet don’t succeed and it discourages them even more. School is no longer about learning. I used to love school. I used to be swept up into a magical new place every time I walked into a classroom. But now that feeling has disappeared. It’s crushed. That feeling has been stomped down so deep inside I can’t even begin to remember what it is like to love school. Since my junior high years I have been counting down the days, hours, and seconds till I graduate. I used to have so many dreams, and ambitions, and an amazing was of look at life. I long for that feeling again. I crave it. I dreamed about being a movie star, going to the moon, having the best time of my life. Now I dream of jobs so I can afford food, trying to become educated in politics, paperwork, bills...etc. I no longer have my ambitions because school told me they couldn’t be done. I wish I could be like my younger self when I grow up, because what a better thing to be, than a little kid.