No bells or whistles for my post. I’m sure you’ve gotten your fill of cute videos with Adey’s post. Plus, I have like 10 minutes, until it’s homework time. Yeah, procrastination is my secret friend.
What did you want to be when you were growing up? And how did that change over the years?
Chapter 1: A reader of…things
My dad taught me how to read when I was around 3 or 4. From then on, I wanted to have a job where I’ll get to read all the time. I thought about becoming a writer, but I always got impatient with the way books I read were written. I believed that they took too long to say what they wanted to say. Turns out it’s just the nature of French (ouch! shots fired!)
Chapter 2: A writer/owner of all-things-books
Around 6 or 7, I decided that I wanted to own a place with books where people could come read for hours (yeah, I know now those are called bookstores and libraries). And, it would be a place with one-0f-a-kind type books that people would buy for ridiculous sums of money, because they…just have to have the only copy of whatchamacallit written by Whoziwhatzit. I also decided that I would become a writer, so that I could make up stories or write down the stories that kept floating in my head.
Chapter 3: A doctor
My parents were open to the idea of me becoming a writer/owner of books, but gently told me that writers made no money in Togo…or in Africa for that matter. Around 9, I overheard one of my cousins say she wanted to become a doctor when she grew up. I saw how much the whole family doted on her after that, and so I decided that, it would become my life calling as well (the hugs and the pats on my head were worth it…then). Plus, at the time, girls were given scholarships to study medicine and it was super-prestigious.
Chapter 4: Public Health Advocate
My life calling of becoming a doctor lasted until Senior year of high school in the States, where I encountered AP Biology. After listening to myself compare veins and arteries and the circulatory system to human interactions and organizations, I started to rethink my career path. I still wanted to a career where I could help people. What better way to help people than healing them? Influence them to heal/take better care of themselves. I saw myself writing books and articles that would convince people to change their eating habits, stop smoking and go buy new gym passes. And things that would convince politicians to support and create policies that improved health. Plus, it gave me something health-related to say, when family members would ask, “So….you’re not going to be a doctor anymore? What are you studying in college again?”
Chapter 5: Global Health…person
My view of Health was broadened by 1 class! I then wanted to work on saving the world, right between Paul Farmer and Jeffrey Sachs. I wanted to advise developing countries on how to take better care of their citizens (basically, I wanted to help dictators become nice)
Chapter 6: Career Counselor
It took so long for me to figure out what I wanted to be. I had this vision of a perfect career where my skills meet my passions. There have been some fantastic people who helped me along the way. I had visions of myself helping other kids as well. Plus, I became really interested in Education, Higher Education, Comparative Education, Education in Developing Countries. Until I realized, that once you’re no longer a college student, most college students seem like bratty kids who love to agonize over the smallest things (myself included in that judgement, hehe). Basically, it’s Adolescence, part 2!
Chapter 7: Professor
I like talking. I like teaching things. I like writing things. I’m not a fan of the research process, but I’m curious. A job where I get to help students figure out what they want to be in life, where I get paid to talk, and I can travel and help people in other countries? hmmm…..
Now…what to teach/research/obsess over?
