I was recently asked a very interesting question during an interview… I was asked, as a little girl, what did I want to be when I grew up? (by the way, it was the PNN.com Podcast “Cereals,” and you can listen by clicking here).
It just so happens that I had been thinking about that in the days before the interview. I had just completed my site redesign. For inspiration, I had been watching old episodes of My So-Called Life. Whenever I need a creativity boost, or if I have a problem that I’m trying to figure out, I always go back to that show.
I was a senior in high school when that show originally aired, and when I watch that show I am immediately transported back to the early to mid-ninties. There’s something special about those years – back when I thought I knew everything, when I was so sure of the world and my place in it.
Watching that show helps me remember who I really am at my core. And of course, who I wanted to grow up to be.
Let me tell you – if you ever have a doubt about anything in your life, think about yourself as a fifteen year old and what they would have thought of your choices today. Would your younger self be pleased with you? Or would they roll their eyes in disgust and think you grew up to be totally out of it?
So I guess that brings us back to the question of what I wanted to be when I grew up…
Well, I remember watching reruns of Bewitched back before I was in school, and thinking that Darren had a really cool gig. I mean, he just thought up advertising and commercials. I could do that! And then when I got to school, I thought it would be really neat to be a teacher. I loved reading. I loved learning. If I were a teacher, I could be in school forever!
But then, when I was 8 something else happened… Oprah went national, and I thought “WOW!” She got paid to talk to people! How cool was that?
And then, when I was a teenager, I came up with my idea for a television network. Yep, that’s right. My own television network. I dreamed big. And why not? You should be dreaming big when you are sixteen years old!
So flash forward to the present. I don’t have a tv network, but my website is pretty similar. And the internet has pretty much taken over what tv used to be, so I’m right on track with that. I may not be employed by an ad firm like Darren was, but I’m still all about the marketing and advertising. And I’m definitely a teacher of sorts. Don’t forget that I made my talk show dreams come true in the form of my podcast…
When I look back, I think it’s pretty crazy that I have managed to take all the things I wanted to do and melt them into one career….
If my 15 year old self saw what my life would look like as a 31 year old, I think she would think I was pretty freakin’ cool. And that makes me feel like I’m doing something right!
What a great question. I think depending at what point you asked, the answers could be very different. I know there was a point at 19 or 20 that I was like, “What are you doing? This is not what we had discussed?!” My mid twenties to mid thirties were amazing. Right on track being healthy, vegetarian, living for the world not myself, writing, submitting, meditating, giving… being happy. My 15 year old self wanted to hang out with me then! The last 5 years I have tanked under the pressure of mothering troubled kids and missing my own Mama. But as I start to climb back up it is that knowledge that things continually evolve that let me know that my high spirited, happy, authentic self is right around the corner waiting to be found again. I’ll just keep dodging my inner 15 year old til I catch up! 🙂
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Ahhhh. As a teenager I wanted to run my own ad agency in Manhattan (I watched bewitched too!). Amazingly, I think I’m not too far off the mark either. I founded my own company (a web startup), I’m the head designer and am living in a major city (not NY, Rome… Italy).
Now if my EIGHT year old self could see me now, she’d be disappointed. She wanted to be an astronaut.
Oh well, can’t please them all. Cheers!
Wow, Tara. Rome? Sounds awesome to me! I think your teenage self would be pretty pleased. And just tell your 8 year old self that she can eat all the spaghetti she wants in Italy. She’ll get over the astronaut thing. Trust me. ha ha
Fantastic question. My teenage self would ADORE me 🙂
I hope you don’t mind but I totally used your question to write my own post. You. are. inspirational.
But I didn’t write it on my main blog, because I’m sneaky like that. Bwahahahahaha!
I’m sure your teenage self would adore you. I adore you! And you are more than welcome to use my question in your post. BUT you have to tell me where it is. You can’t leave me hanging!! So email me, dang it!
Aha. I found it.
Curious to see what Miss Jenny Decki had to say? Read it here: https://badmommyblogger.com/108/my-teenage-self-would-adore-me/
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