When I Grow Up...

One of my favorite commercials was an ad for Monster.com. It showed fresh-faced kids looking into the camera and sharing their dreams for the future. We're accustomed to kids saying they want to be a doctor, or an astronaut, or a ballerina, but instead these kids said, "When I grow up, I want to be a brown nose," and "When I grow up, I want to be in middle management" and "When I grow up, I want to be a yes-man." The kids are so cute and their answers are so absurd you can't help but laugh. But looking at your own life, can you still laugh? Or are you on the verge of crying, because you are stuck in middle management, you have a brown nose, and you are definitely a yes-man (or woman). Kids have a distinct advantage over most adults: they are free to dream. If a 10 year old says "I want to be a doctor," everyone smiles and says "You can do it. You can be anything you want to be." If a 40 year old mother of three says "I want to be a doctor," most of the people around her will likely say "Go back to school at your age? Where will you find the money? Do you have any idea how long that will take?" What's wrong with that picture? Who put an age limit on dreams? When are you suppose to stop pursuing your dreams and start "acting like an adult?" Its sad that society's definition of acting like an adult often means jumping into the mainstream, doing what everyone else does and not rocking the boat. You get a "good job," you bring in a steady pay check and you never ever EVER do anything risky like start your own business or quit the "good job" you hate, or go back to school to start a new career. I am particularly fond of a quote by Mark Twain. He says, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in our sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Ask you inner child what he or she wants to be when they grow up. I dare you.