What I want to do when I grow up
Today, we had a visit from the Hildegard Marsden Day Camp. As they were touring the newsroom, we naturally ribbed them about becoming news anchors. For some reason none of them wanted radio jobs.
Then Mike, our new Managing Editor in the afternoon, asked the kids what they did want to do when they grew up. The answers were priceless.
One little boy very seriously declared that he wanted to be a “brave knight.” One of his fellow campers wanted to be an “actress who plays the little mermaid.”
That got me thinking about when I was that age and what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a movie star, an archeologist or a journalist. A face for radio and a poor math mark left me following the latter career path.
A survey by Workopolis released yesterday found more than 80 per cent of adults are not living their childhood dreams.
As far as I know there are currently no openings for “brave knight.” So in some cases, it’s easy to see why those dreams are abandoned. But some kids, want to be doctors and lawyers. What goes wrong?
According to the survey 41 per cent of those surveyed said education and training ultimately influenced their decision to abandon the dream. Another 30 per cent said the availabilty of a job in their dream field was the deciding factor.
In a press release the president of Workopolis, Patrick Sullivan said, “as children, we’re taught to think from the heart and live out our dreams. But at some point, reality takes over and we think only with our heads”
But do we really need to be miserable in order to be responsible adults? Not necessarily. Sullivan says “The ideal job should marry the raw enthusiasm we felt as children with the tangible rewards we want on the job as adults today.”
That is why I feel very lucky every day to be one of the 13 per cent of people who are living their teenage dream.
Kate