Fun Monday: Careers-Then and Now

Our hostess with the mostess this week is irishcoffee house, and she wants to know about our career aspirations, past and present. Here is the specific assignment.

THEN: As a child day dreaming of what your future would hold for you, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you ever pursue or achieve it?

NOW: If you could be trained and placed in any career beginning tomorrow, what would it be?

I can't remember at what point I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I just always knew I wanted to be a television reporter. Apparently, the seed was planted very early. We always watched the national news each evening in our house. Even at a young age I was aware of world issues, and Jessica Savitch was my idol. When I was about to go off to college to study journalism my grandma gave me a sheet of paper she had saved since I was a little girl. It was a piece of primary tablet paper I had left at her house years before on which I had rewritten a news story I had heard on the television that day and had used while playing "anchor" at her dining room table. It was proof that my career choice had been made early on. My decision never wavered through college and upon graduation I worked in radio news for three years before landing a job as a producer at a television station. While being an anchor and reporter was still my main goal, I really enjoyed the power a producer held over the entire newscast, and it wasn't long before my goals began to change. I liked the power. I wanted to be in charge. Within two years I was promoted to Assignment Manager. Eventually, I was named News Director and got to run the newsroom. I enjoyed the job, and for nearly five years I got my chance to be in charge. Parts of it were extremely challenging and even sometimes even heart wrenching. Management is tough. Parts of it were very rewarding, though. I loved what I did and cared very much about the people with whom I worked. A desire to have more time with my family and to eliminate some of the stress in my life fueled my decision to change careers at age forty. I am very happy with that decision.

If I could train for a new career today, I would be torn. Deep down, I am a pastry chef wanna be. I could be happy baking decadent desserts and making pulled sugar sculptures every day for the rest of my life. I would love culinary school, and upon my return home I would open a shop that reeks of sugar and adds ten pounds to your hips upon entry.

I would also love being a prima ballerina. I'm too old now for my body to be that flexible again, but I dream of flying across the stage in a tutu and pointe shoes. I'm sad Barishnikov has never held me in his arms. But if I have to be completely honest here, the career that I would give my right arm for, would crawl across the Sahara for and would walk barefoot on crushed glass for is this......

I long to be a Rockette. Since I was about eight, I've watched the Macey's Thanksgiving parade and marveled over the synchronized legs and furry Santa hats of the Rockettes. I kicked my way through high school and college on the drill team and pom pom squads, imagining the whole time that I really was in training for a career on the stage at Radio City Music Hall. New York could call me today, and I would pack my bags and Santa hat and head north. It's the only reason I would willingly wear pantyhose at this point in my life. Now head on over to irishcoffeehouse and see what everybody wants to be when they grow up.