sidetracked

so i thought up most of this last night, then my computer did it’s stupid thing and ten hours later i decided to go to bed instead. but we’re hitting near the 130 mark (some of us can’t read after that), so here it is:
wapa talked about fear on the last blog, and did it beautifully, and we discussed it, and then elephants and church shopping and g-g’s new man and cary’s need for shovels (umm, turns out shovels made out of chocolate get eaten before we reach a destination, we may need to buy actual metal next time…the rest of you were using metal? huh, who’d a thunk it) and it ended- the last time i looked- with a promise for a fun night on the town with two librarians, those wild ladies.

anyways, my point is we got off topic. yes, i realize this is not news for you. you probably realized this back when it first started, and we talked about kitties with guns and squirrels that talked and did things to Rene LaFavre he probably still hasn’t recovered from, the poor man. going off topic is not a new idea in CB World. heck, it’s almost mandatory.

but what about in the real world? (remember, we are all imaginary figures, we don’t count as the real world)

a few years ago, i remember asking every adult i came in contact with what they did now and what they wanted to be when they were kids. very few people matched up, which isn’t a good or bad thing, or even necessarily true of most people, but i found it fascinating.

to date, i have wanted to be: a veterinarian (until i realized the sad aspects would make me too sad), a hairdresser (until i realize i would also have to cut boys hair, which never seemed as fun), an assassin, not a hitman (until i realized i would be killed rather quickly considering i can’t move without it sounding like a pack of wild elephants met up with fifty drummers playing at the same time), a brief flirtation with being a pilot (actually, that’s always in the background), and now in the publishing industry, which is the goal i am working on and will end up as. where exactly, as this is a big industry, i’m not sure, but something in my job is going to help an author’s work get into the hands of as many readers as i can. i love books, and what better career (and i want a career, not a job, which is two very different things) than to work with them? reading has always been a constant, and it always will.

but jobs are one aspect. socially, physically, emotionally…how many people got sidetracked from what they wanted and ended up where they are? i have some very set ideas about my future: no kids, though i’ll be the best “auntie”, a comfortable house/apartment with clutter but not junk, continue working with my activism, continue writing, etc etc etc. but there are other things i don’t know about- where i’m going to live, what exactly my work will be, how many countries i am going to visit….

ok, you probably have the gist by now. so my question is this: what is one thing you were absolutely going to do when you were a kid, and what are you doing today to make it happen? and why haven’t you done anything until now?

p.s. i know at least one of is going to say writing, how can you not, but anything else?

of course, if you don’t want to think, wait around till post 19 and we’ll have moved on to “what is it about fuzzy robes that you can’t get enough of?”

39 comments January 20th, 2007