When I Grow Up, I'll Be ...

We all remember what it was like being little and thinking about what we’d grow up to be. Now that we’re grown ups (at least in age), how do the dreams of our childhood stack up to how we’re living them out?

Bethany:

You may not believe me, but I am actually exactly where I hoped I would be when I was little. I always dreamed of growing up and becoming a Mommy of two kids. Of course, I had the other child-like notions of being a ballerina or a princess, but more than anything else what I really wanted to grow up to be was a Mom of two.

I grew up the middle child of three daughters, my Mom (for most of my childhood) worked from home so she was almost always around, my Dad was home at the same time every night, and we lived a pretty typical middle-class life in our pretty typical middle-class suburb. I had a lovely childhood with caring involved parents in a house full of love. It was great.

Then in my early teen years, things started to change in our house. My parents split up, my Mom had to start working outside the home, and our happy family started to change and drift. I think more than anything this helped solidify what I wanted out of life. What I really wanted was our happy little family back, but what I knew was that would never be. So I held tight to my dreams for my own future family.

I had interests and fascinations with things like art and architecture, but when I would dream about my future, I always knew that I wanted to have two children and always hoped that I would have a boy and a girl. I also knew that I wanted to be at home with my children the way my Mom was with us.

Boy did I get lucky! I am now the proud Mom of two beautiful and healthy children who also happen to be a boy and a girl, just as I had hoped for. I am also lucky enough to be able to stay home with them thanks to my hard working hubby. So (at the risk of sounding totally hokey), I guess my childhood dreams really did come true!

Nicole:

To be honest, I don’t really remember what I wanted to be when I was little. I know I had lofty aspirations of being a singer, dancer, artist, writer and who knows what else. But I never really thought past what homework assignment I had due or what color nail polish Joey from New Kids on the Block would like best if I met him. None of us think, when we’re little at least, that whatever we want to be at that exact moment won’t come true. My parents always indulged me in my wild imagination and I thank them for that because now that I am a Mom, I know how important that is.

Then I started high school, and my imagination started to get honed in on more specific things. I loved biology, I was on the track team, I hated school and I STILL had no clue what I really wanted to be when I grew up. All I knew was that I had to go to college, despite my best efforts to convince my parents otherwise, and that after that who knows! I again could never think past what homework assignment that was due and what I would say to Bradley Nowell if he came back to life and I could meet him.

Then came college, and lets just say it was a time in my life where I didn’t think much about what I was going to do when I was done! I had four years ... ok fine almost six years ... to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

Then the summer I turned 21, I met my husband-to-be and all of a sudden it all clicked into place. I knew that the only thing I wanted to be was with him and nothing else really mattered. It sounds TOTALLY cheesy as I write this, but it’s true. I graduated college, moved to New York for a while, came back to California, snagged a pretty sweet job and life was awesome. Then I got pregnant with my girl and that was it. I finally got it. I was born to be a wife and a Mama.

It may have not been what I always imagined, I never knew what was in store for me. But when I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up, I was already a grown up and ready to take on the challenge! I’m really enjoying every day doing what I do and I’m pretty sure this was what I was meant to do all along, I just didn’t know it.


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Did your dreams become reality? We’d love to hear from you all! Please share with us in the comments below.