Monday, August 23, 2010

What Did You Want to Be?

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" I will occasionally ask kids that question and always enjoy their responses. Remember when you were young enough to still have time to decide? I wonder at what age you are officially "grown up" and therefore supposed to "be" whatever it is you're going to become.

This thought came to me today as I fixed the vacuum...again. I'm regularly sweeping up something major, like bedsheets or carpet tassels,  and those mishaps tend to make the belt come off so I'm required to go into fix-it mode. The frightening truth? I really enjoy fixing the vacuum. It's not so much about replacing the belt as it is about the dismantling of the vacuum in the first place. I enjoy removing the screws and the covers and digging out all the gunk while I'm in there. I feel a ridiculous sense of accomplishment when I unclog a vacuum. Sometimes it's the most productive thing I've done all day. So all this is to say that, if asked today what I want to be when I grow up, I might say "vacuum cleaner repair-woman."

If you'd asked me the same question a couple weeks ago, I would have replied with "jongleur." I first discovered this word when working my way through The Pillars of the Earth. According to the Mills Music Library at the University of Wisconsin,
"Jongleurs, both men and women, first appeared in the tenth century. Often traveling in troupes among European cities, villages, and castles, they earned a bare bones existence through their singing, acrobatics, theatrical productions, and even trained animal acts. Actually, they seem to have foreshadowed Late Night with David Letterman, without the Top Ten List."
Aside from the bare bones existence part, that sounds pretty cool, right? In The Pillars of the Earth, jongleurs were also described as story tellers, and that part really appealed to me. While we all know my basic motherhood skills are lacking, just ask my kids about my dramatic reading ability. I'm fantastic! I can read stories with the best of them, creating cool character voices and all. I just finished reading the sixth volume of Harry Potter to Abby, having read each book out loud. I'm particularly good as Snape and Dobby.

Prior to my vacuum fixing and jongleur days, my post-college, pre-marriage dream job was to be a photojournalist for National Geographic. Unfortunately, I did not discover my love of photography until my senior year of college when, in my short-sighted little mind, it was too late to pursue it.Who knows, had I been more adventurous, today I might be blogging from a village in Mozambique and I'd include a picture of a pride of lions with my post.

Finally, if we went all the way back to my earliest memory of "what I want to be when I grow up," I would have told you "Connie Chung." This was prior to when every broadcast journalist hopeful wanted to be Katie Couric. I wanted to be a news anchor ever since I narrated the school assembly in 5th grade. The school secretary wrote me a sweet note, telling me she thought I could get a job with ABC, NBC, or CBS. I may still have that note someplace because it directed my educational choices from 5th grade till I graduated from college (at which point I realized I had no desire to get my start in the biz by sticking a microphone in somebody's face at a house fire and asking them how they felt.).


Time to share with Freakin Angel readers...what did/do you want to be when you grow up?

4 comments:

James Wood said...

I always wanted to be a rock star growing up. When I saw KISS for the first time I was hooked. Of course, I wanted to be Ace with the big Les Paul guitar. Eventually talked my parents into giving me guitar lessons.

I played guitar in high school (even for you Kim as you performed on stage in Leader of the Pack). Went to college for music before realizing that if I wanted to EAT I'd have to re-think this career choice. Computers seemed to be the route to go and I focused more on that.

It wasn't until 5 years ago that I was asked to join a band whose singer won the inaugural Star of Bethlehem contest. She's a phenomenal singer and I was ecstatic to just be performing with her. Then, the ultimate "rock-star" moment happened....

Musikfest asked if we'd like to open up for Clay Aiken on the opening night of Musikfest 2004. This was the height of Clay's fame when everyone was going nuts for him. Long story short: I got to bring my own Les Paul to that stage that night performing for 6,500 people on the biggest stage at Musikfest....WOW!!!

So now I write songs, play here and there but do the "geek" thing full time. At least I had a taste of the "big time". And I have a DVD of our show to remind me of the rock star life I lived!

Rachel Gilmore said...

So, since you're a Marketing Director, which I assume does not include vaccuum repair tasks nor, quite likely, jongleur outlets, where does that leave you? One thing I've learned in this life is you gotta do what you love. If it's not your passion, you're going to be miserable either outwardly or inwardly. What really changed my mind on that was an interview I did for a small business feature for the local paper. They assigned me a disaster restoration company, and I thought, "Oh my gosh, I've done a lot of interviews with a lot of unique businesses, but come on...how am I going to make sopping up water and pitching smoke damaged curtains interesting to the readers?" So I came with my standard questions about how did you get into this and why do you do what you do, and it turns out the owner had a passion for disaster restoration. He absolutely loved his steam cleaning machine which was like a mini-zamboni and went around sucking up all the water out of flooded homes. He went to conferences about how to better utilize your equipment and new technology advances in removing smoke residue from homes. But the biggest thing for him was that he made a difference in people's lives after a tragedy. He could come in, clean up and help them get back to normal. That was his passion...serving people. Wow! Forever changed my outlook on how you decide what to do for a living. It also strengthened my opinion that we believers do a terrible disservice in not helping all people discern their spiritual gifts and how they can put them to use. Just imagine what a wonderful world this would be if everyone was using their gifts the way God really intended.

A "Freakin' Angel" said...

I suppose I should have wrapped up that post by saying that I did end up in a happy place! I do love my job as a marketing director as it allows me to write, embrace my creative side, and surround myself with people of faith who don't mind my quirkiness.

And Jim, so glad you shared your rock star ambitions and had a taste of the high life!

Emily said...

I wanted to be a road builder. Seriously. I wanted to operate the steam roller. There was something really appealing about smoothing everything down into a perfect level road. There is a huge metaphor in there somewhere -- right?