What do you want to become when you grow up?
A wrong question to ask children
Right from the young age of 6, I have always found myself constantly answering this question, and each time I had a different answer.
Why?
Simple, I was a kid.
What did I know about finite career choices? My choices were endless. I wanted to be many things, a Doctor, a Teacher, a Lawyer, at a point I had a big dream of being the first-ever female President. Who wouldn’t want to have a child with big political aspirations?
Over the years I had more reassuring and gauged responses. In one of the recent years, I just said “I don’t know” and I didn’t feel ashamed for not having clarity about who I wanted to become, because, in the world we live in, we are expected to have a clear picture of our future.
Well, I was that exception.
I didn’t know what I wanted to become, not because I had no idea, but because I was afraid of what I would be limiting myself to. I don’t do well with limitations.
What if I wanted to be more than just a finance analyst, what if I wanted to be many things (jack of all trades they say). Restricting myself to just a choice can’t be all there is to my becoming.
The truth is ‘what do you want to become when you grow up’ is an awfully wrong question to ask anyone.
To me, it was as if, being one thing was all there is to me and I will grow up and be defined by a singular choice. I couldn’t picture that life, so my best answer was “It is gradually unfolding”. That was nothing short of the truth. Every day I find myself entangled in things that are gradually shaping who I’m becoming because I’m becoming.
Becoming More
Fact is, there is always more to become. At the moment I’m a 21 years Economics graduate, author of two books, a writer, a Finance analyst, a brand manager of my own startup, a mental health advocate, and Graphics/Web designer and I don’t intend on stopping there because there is more, I have to offer.
Also added to the list of the things I expected you to add is the more you’re to the rest of the world. You’re someone’s support system, you’re another person’s wife, mother, and granddaughter, you’re always going to be more than the finite choices of human comprehension.
Becoming Better
Aligning myself to the millions of things I wanted to become made me better at being a human being. I can say this because I have seen it replicate itself in the things I do and the people around me. You mirror the people around you and the things you do. It may take me some time to reach great, but every process towards it is making me a better person.
That should be the constant aim, not just to be something out of a book context, but someone curated out of intentional values. Set a standard for yourself to be a better person than you were a day, a month, or a year before. By consciously doing this, you become better at everything else.
Becoming You
In the journey to becoming better and more in life, it is very important not to lose yourself in the process. Sometimes we get lost in our life’s mission that we forget ourselves while at it.
There is no success without you in it. Be careful whenever you get involved in anything, let it not be at the detriment of your relationships, your mental health, and your personality, because when these three things are compromised, then you’re nowhere near becoming who you should be.
Rather, let everything you do; all your life’s accomplishments be a true reflection of who you are. When people see your work, let them see you. Don’t get lost in translation simply because all you wanted to do was talk.
Every day, choose to become more of you than you have ever been and aim to be better at it.
When next they ask you “What do you want to become when you grow up?” In all confidence tell them “I want to become more, better and me” and be satisfied with your response.
Never feel guilty for not having total clarity about what your future holds (you actually aren’t supposed to know everything). And mostly, never feel bad for not giving them the perfect answer, you’re accountable to only yourself.
