"What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?" is the WRONG question.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

We have all been asked this question at some point in our lives, and most of us don't have an answer. People expect us to know in high school or even middle school to know what we want to do with the rest of our lives, which is ridiculous. There are people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, who still don't know "What they want to be when they grow up."

I think so many of us have trouble answering this question because it limits us to define ourselves by our job, (and how are we supposed to even know what that is going to be?) and I don't like that. Because truthfully, there are so many things that I want to be, there are so many things that I want to do, that I can't choose just one.

I am studying education at the University of Oregon, and people assume that I want to be a teacher. Which is not untrue, I do want to teach people, I do want to be a teacher. But I want to do so much more than that, I want to be so much more than that. I don't like the question "What do you want to be when you grow up" because it forces me to choose one thing, and I don't want to be just one thing. I am constantly changing, constantly growing and evolving, and who I want to be when I grow up is changing and evolving along with me.

So I propose we ask a new question, one that does not limit us to one job, one definition, one thing. And that is:


What do you want to do with your life? WHO do you want to be?


And this is my answer to that question, at least at this point in my life.

I want to be a teacher. I want to be a counselor. I want to be a motivational speaker. I want to be a talk show host. I want to be an activist. I want to be a philosopher. I want to be intellectual. I want to be cultured. I want to be a friend. I want to write a book. I want to meet a lot of people and go a lot of places. I want to learn everything there is to know. I want to love everything that needs to be loved. I want to stand up for those who can't speak up for themselves. I want to live like Jesus. I want to challenge you and I want you to challenge me. I don't want to talk about the weather. I want to be outside of my comfort zone. I want to make people smile. I want to be silly. I want to be serious. I want to be quiet. I want to observe. I want to be loud. I want to be passionate. I want to be far too weird for my own good. I don't want to be afraid.

To be anything less than all of these things would prevent me from being all that I can be, all that I want to be. So I ask you, reader of this blog post,

What do you want to do with your life? Who do you want to be? When you have gone and past away, how do you want to be remembered?