When I Grow Up?

          Growing up, everyone has this idea of what they want to be. As children the boys fantasize about being fireman, the girls dream of being teachers or movie stars. Some children want to be doctors or lawyers. As we grew older, the ideas of what we wanted to be changed for most of us. When I was younger (and my mother has this on video tape), I said I wanted to "grow up to be a singer." Of course, with age came insecurity and the judgments of others and the realization that a dream of that magnitude would be extremely difficult to reach.

           So the next thing was "hmmm, what else could I be?" Shaped by my academic talents and my natural ability to be technical in arguing, my mother posed the idea of being an attorney. I had no clue what a lawyer was, I just knew they argued well in front of a judge. So then of course, after that, when people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said "a lawyer." After years of schooling and rigorous standardized exams, I am the attorney that I said I wanted to be, or my mother said I should be?  Thank goodness they are one in the same.

           Sometimes I question if the idea of being an attorney was never posed to me, if I would have still become an attorney? I am not a parent, but I do understand that parents have much influence over the futures of their children. Working as an attorney now, I do realize that this is where I am supposed to be. I enjoy being an attorney. Do I enjoy the practice area Im working with, maybe not so much, but I enjoy the practice of law. There are things in me, beyond being an attorney that I would still like to accomplish.

           Most of it is not legally related. Many of us are still trying to figure out what it is we want to be "when we grow up." I am still figuring that out too. So if you could be anything you wanted or do anything you wanted to do(without the hassle of student loans or financial burdens) , what would you do? What do you want to be when you grow up?