Melissa said, "Sometimes your childhood dreams become your adult wish I would haves."

I love watching the Oscars.  While the gowns are of course beautiful, and I like critiquing what everyone has on, especially with my husband, which is too funny, what I really love about the Oscars is seeing these people turn their childhood dreams into an adult reality.  If you ask most of these stars, they would say that their dream as a child was to be an actor.  Watching the Oscars you see all these adults that made that dream happen.  Whatever you think about their acting talent, morals, or personal lives, these people managed to make their dream come true, and the dream of acting in Hollywood isn't exactly an easy one to have fulfilled. How many of us can say the dream we had for our lives as children came true?

When asked that proverbial question when I was a kid "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I had several answers over the years.  My first choice was probably to be a singer.  I recall a first or second grade drawing of me standing in front of a microphone with SINGER written in my best first or second grade handwriting under it.  Problem with this particular dream is that I actually got to meet several musicians and singers as a kid because of my dad.  I saw what it was like being on the road all the time, what most gigs are REALLY like while you are in the "trying to make it" stage of your career.  Even if I had been good enough to be a singer, I learned rather quickly that I did not really want the lifestyle that comes along with it.

I spent some time thinking I might like to be an attorney.  As a kid I loved to argue and I loved watching lawyer TV shows like Perry Mason and Matlock.  When I found out how long you had to go to school it started getting a little less attractive.  Also, I have never been very good at memorizing things unless it comes with a tune, and I knew being a lawyer meant a lot of memorization, so that was out.

The thought of being a writer always cropped up.  When my teacher would bring out that magic paper, the paper with the lines at the bottom and the place at the top to draw a picture, I was in heaven.  The magical story paper, where I would get to craft in a few lines a daring tale of whatever my first or second grade mind could cook up and then masterfully illustrate that tale above it.  Now, my pictures ALWAYS left much to be desired, I was never a good artist, but even then I tried to write something that was as good as I could make it.

When I got older that story paper was replaced by the blank book.  In 6th grade my teacher introduced us to blank books.  We got to craft a story, type it on a computer, cut out the type, glue it in the blank book, and then illustrate as needed.  This was absolutely awesome.  When I was finished I had what looked like, at least to my 11 year old self, a real book.  I even remember what my story was about, it was about a group of friends who stay after school for a club project and find their teacher murdered and they work to solve the murder.  Pretty unoriginal really, but I thought it was full of suspense and mystery and I was extremely proud of my finished product.

When I got a little older I considered seriously becoming an optometrist.  I have worn glasses since I was in second grade and have always been fascinated by the eye.  I went to far as to visit the University of Alabama campus in 10th grade with a friend and investigate what classes were involved in this major.  When I saw all the math classes involved in that particular career choice I knew that was out.  I was barely keeping my head above water in algebra.

My final abandoned career choice of that of a band director.  I absolutely love music and the last two years of my high school days were filled mostly with music classes, with a few core classes sprinkled in there.  I was in concert choir, show choir, jazz band, and marching band.  I was drum major of the marching band and also was a teacher's aide in the beginner band class.  How could something I loved so much NOT be my chosen profession.  When discussing it with my beloved band teacher Mr. White he gave me some surprising, yet sound advice.  He told me that band director jobs are few and far between and he knew I was quite serious with my boyfriend (we were engaged in secret actually), and he told me that being a band director means that you sometimes have to move around to find a job.  He told me to do it only if that is absolutely what I wanted to do.

After thinking about it I realised that there was one job that I could do that would encompass all the things I ever wanted to do.  I could be an elementary school teacher  I got to teach science, showing my students the wonder of the human eye and many other amazing things.  One year I got to teach elementary music and I even got to do a Christmas program and a Grandparents Day program.  Being a teacher required arguing many times and I often felt like an attorney when I had to deal some particularly difficult parents.  One of the things that brought me the most joy as a teacher was teaching writing to my students.  I spent three years as a fifth grade teacher and in Alabama students take the Writing Assessment in 5th grade.  I got to write for my students.  Crafting examples of the three forms of writing they would have to be capable of producing for the test I got to share my love of writing with my students.  I never was more excited about teaching than when I got to prepare my students for this test.

There are times when I wish I would have done something different, something more exciting, something that made more money, but what else could let me do everything I ever wanted to do all at once?  Some dreams still feel unfinished, like being a writer myself, but being an adult does not mean all our dreams have to die.  This blog is my step toward making that dream happen, instead of it being a regret.  I hope I get to teach again.  I was devastated when I was pink slipped from my teaching job just before I was tenured, and then spent 2 years looking for a new job to no avail, but I KNOW when I do get to teach again I will be so much the better for all the things that have happened to me since.