"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

Top Five Childhood Dream Careers

1. Swimmer—Most of my childhood memories of summer revolve around Brairwood Swimming Pool.  I spent countless hours improving my fly, back, breast, and free strokes.  When August came and it was once again time to return to school, I would begrudgingly return to school thinking only of the pool and the swimsuit that had been traded for a plaid jumper.  I daydreamed of standing on an Olympic podium with a gold medal around my neck and the “Star Spangled Banner” ringing in the background.

2. Dentist—I wanted to be a dentist after hearing countless stories growing up of my grandfather’s dental practice.   My favorite story was about a man who paid my grandfather in watermelons.  A watermelon wasn’t a rare form of payment by any means in my grandfather’s practice, and so I thought that being a dentist would be great fun for that reason.  You could never know quite what you were gonna get.

3. Professional Lifeguard—Yes, this seems to be no different than that of a swimmer, but it is.  Spending a lot of time at the pool, you hear things.  Someone once told me that you could become a professional lifeguard (no- it is not exactly Bay Watch).  This job involved a lot of world travel, which is of course what attracted me to this position.  I saw myself traveling from water park to water park, exploring large waterslides and lazy rivers, or at least that was my romanticized version of the job description.

4. Chef—I always loved cooking with my grandmother.  She was so patient in the kitchen, teaching me how to make mashed potatoes or dressing for our Thanksgiving feast.  I can remember the disappointment of my first attempt at baking a cake in my Easy Bake Oven.  The cake was still a gooey mess after three and half hours in the Easy Bake.  So let’s say the Ace of Cakes has always impressed me.  

5. Do Gooder—As a general warning: this job is the most make believe out of all these jobs.  This job was very simple.  I wanted to make people happy. I had thoughts of giving away rainbows and rays of sunshine.  I also thought about giving away copious amounts of pizza and candy to my kindergarten class.  The logistics of this job revolved around some type of endless supply of money and magic.