People always ask me what I plan on doing after high school and I always think back to when I first heard the phrase, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Now this was in kindergarten, so I was about five years old. While all the other kids around me we’re shouting out things like race car driver, vet, and fireman, I had nothing. So, I continued to cut out the various hearts and shapes from the construction paper I was given with my childproof scissors. When I was in second grade in Mrs. Anderson’s class, while all the other kids brought their favorite toys and parents in for show and tell, I was super stoked to sing my song that I had made up, to the class. I remember sitting on the floor of my grandmothers room a few days before this, reciting the lyrics out of my head so that she could write them all down for me; since my penmanship was no good at the time. Anyway, when I finished off the ending line, “He played the guitar, she sang a tune,” the entire class clapped, cheered, and then once again I was faced with the question of, “so, is this what you want to do when you grow up?” by my teacher. I was never thinking about it seriously, I was freshly seven, and it was just fun. So, I shrugged my shoulders with a maybe, and gave a bow. 

Now that I’m supposedly all grown up, aside from now being a few years wiser, more musically inclined, and capable of using the big people scissors, in being asked this question, a lot hadn’t changed much. My answer the same, only vaguely modified by wittier responses to mask the fact that I hadn’t a clue. Yet in this past month, I’ve finally realized what it is that I aspire to do. Which is not something that I need years of education, months of training, or a series vigorous interviews for, but it consists of things I’ve been doing my entire life.

The only thing I want to do is to create. I don’t want to be in the medical field or the armed forces, and I sure as hell don’t want to be confined to a tiny office building…that has never interested me. I just want to make things; I don’t care how good they are, or if you like them or not. I just want to do what I love doing best, creating the timeless things that have made me happy for years. Things like books and music, photos and art, jewelry and headbands, coffee and tea, enchiladas and lasagna, cookies and cupcakes, love, lasting friendships, memories, and good times. So when I’m old and gray making doilies and scarfs for my grandchildren, I will be surrounded by the pages I’ve filled, the various knickknacks I’ve collected, music I’ve made, and infinite amounts of photo filled frames of the places I’ve been, and all the wonderful people I’ve met along the way.