The Lost Dreams of Childhood

Today I read a fantastic article passed on to me by my friend Rachel. The article talks about much more than I can summarize here–I highly recommend you read it. Here’s one of the points that really stood out to me:

Maybe you never really wanted to be a cardiac surgeon in the first place. It just kind of happened. It’s easy, the way the system works, to simply go with the flow. I don’t mean the work is easy, but the choices are easy. Or rather, the choices sort of make themselves. You go to a place like Stanford because that’s what smart kids do. You go to medical school because it’s prestigious. You specialize in cardiology because it’s lucrative. You do the things that reap the rewards, that make your parents proud, and your teachers pleased, and your friends impressed. From the time you started high school and maybe even junior high, your whole goal was to get into the best college you could, and so now you naturally think about your life in terms of “getting into” whatever’s next.

This got me thinking: What did I want to be when I grew up? I can think of two specific things, and perhaps my mother can expand upon them in the comments section without embarrassing me too much.

1. I wanted to be an architect. It started with a fascination with Thomas Jefferson and evolved into an adoration of Frank Lloyd Wright. Specifically, it ignited when I learned that Frank Lloyd Wright designed his own home. That seemed like the best idea ever. I wanted to be an architect so I could design my own home. And I wanted it to have secret passages.
2. I wanted to be an inventor. This one started when I watched Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. I was fascinated by the shrinking machine. I’ll try to find a picture of it for this blog, because this machine was a young inventor’s wet dream. Amazing stuff.

Now I’m 30. I went through college to get a business degree and to become fluent in Japanese. I worked for a publishing company and currently work for a church. I’ve started one web-based business that failed and am currently involved in a fiction publishing startup. I do a very small amount of marketing for a local barbershop.

I am not an inventor or an architect. And I’m okay with that. But I think it’s worth revisiting those lost dreams of childhood, those days of awe and wonder and curiosity, to try to decipher what sparked my desire to be an inventor and an architect. What parts of myself have lain dormant while I busied myself with getting into a good high school, getting into a good university, getting into a good position at a good company, getting into a condo, getting into a comfortable life?

I think there’s untapped potential and knowledge in our childhood dreams. And so I ask you: What did you want to be when you grew up?