Musings - What my life could have been...

Growing up I wanted to be many things.

My parents indulged me to a certain extent, mostly I think because they wanted me to at least do something with my life. I had big dreams and little dreams, insane dreams and those that I will never list for anyone to see. (Being Mrs Mitchell took me through 12yrs – 21yrs ha ha)

Here are but a few of the professions that made it onto my “Tonight, Matthew, I’m going to be…” list.

5yrs – 6yrs: Dancer
I had lessons. I was just never any good at it.

7yrs – 9yrs: Teacher
Is it wrong to base a career move based on the need to keep others in line? Okay I admit I just loved to call the fake registers.

10yrs: Restaurant Owner
Someone gave me an old telephone and I used to take imaginary food orders. I added the owner part as working in a Take Away didn’t seem to be ambitious enough.

11yrs: Professional
I had a pencil case, a briefcase and a calculator. I was destined for Wall Street.

12yrs: Actress
I had one good drama lesson. I figured I would get to meet Ethan Hawke. I soon realised that the paralysing fear of performing did not a good thespian make.

13yrs: Musician
I can play a little Recorder, a little Guitar, a little Horn and a little Piano. I’m bad at all the littles. Calling myself a musician… like calling Paint by Numbers art (sorry Jo).

14yrs – 15yrs: Interpreter
I can’t speak any other languages. I am limited to Xie Xie, Dove il gato? and Konnichi Wa. I was bolstered by a good parents evening and although my parents forked out for an electronic translator… it was not to be.

16yrs: Librarian
I love books. Have 900 of my own. As I dislike libraries for trusting local fools with their books again I came to the conclusion that I was barking up the wrong profession tree.

17yrs – 18yrs: Artist
This was a possibility as I can actually paint and I was at an age where decisions needed to be made. But while I could paint… I didn’t love doing it.

18yrs – 22yrs: Marketer
I had a knack for marketing; for segmenting the world, knowing what they wanted and how to make them buy it. I even went to university to try and confirm that this road was for me. It didn’t work. I’m not a con artist.

So this is my list. My to do’s that didn’t. You might be wondering what happened after 22yrs? Well, I work in a college office… biding my time until my lottery win. But I do have one dream, a dream that followed me through the teaching and the drawing and ivory tinkering.

That dream was to write, to open up my creative soul and let it spill through the medium of the written word.

At 29 I’m still waiting to do that something with my life but at least I feel that writing is my calling. All I need to do now is take myself seriously and then maybe others will too.