I would like to be an adult when I grow up....

When I was a kid, knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I would be a dentist, graduating from BYU. I would be married when I was 22, and would have two kids. And of course, my family would have a pet pig. It wasn't until I reached middle school age, when I realized my plans sucked. Though I love my teeth, I really don't want to spend time in other people's mouths. It's quite gross. And the problems with BYU were: 1. I'd have to be around all Mormons all the time and 2. I'd have to live in Utah. Neither of which is all that appealing to me. I realized that marriage would come when I had found the right guy, at whatever age that might be. And kids would depend on a lot of variables, that I wouldn't know right now. But the pig...I'll still have the pig.

So when my original plans fell through, I decided I would wait until I was older to figure out what to do with my life. So here I am. The question I hate getting asked is, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' For a while I made up a new career for myself every time someone asked. 'I want to be a race car driver.' But I eventually stopped doing that because I ran out of awesome careers.

Don't get me wrong I have thought about what I could do when I'm older. Once I asked my mom if I could use my college funds to attend a ninja academy instead of college, and she laughed and walked away. And though she mocked my half joking/half serious question, whenever I'm really into something I'll tell my mom, and that'll be my answer to the awful question for a while. But I change quite frequently. I don't talk about it, because I'll confuse people later when I say I have a new career choice. Here are some examples: dentist, astronomer, doctor, police officer.

Mostly I have an idea of what I'll be doing when I grow up. I've been into all types of different fields of science since I was a kid, and I'd always figure I would do something with science. My parents and my sisters expect this too. They're always telling people that I'm going to make some great scientific discovery that will revolutionize the world. As much as I'd like to do that, as much as I'd like to change the world...I'm not sure I want to do something with science. But since I generally do what is expected of me, this is what I'll probably be doing. And I'll enjoy it, I love science.

But the thing I enjoy more than anything in the world is writing. I want to write poetry, short stories, novels, and screenplays. Anything that can be written, I want to write. I want to create characters as famous as Tom Sawyer and Harry Potter. I want someone to change his/her lifestyle just because of my book. But my family expects me to be a superhero, and superheroes don't write. It's not a reasonable career anyway. Getting published can take years, and then people have to buy what you write. So, it's the career I keep in the back of my mind, in case the opportunity ever arises.

I understand that soon I'll have to make decision on which college to attend and what career I want to have, but right now I'm just not going to worry about my future. There's too much to think about in the present.

The final thing I want to mention is our new banner. I hope everyone likes it. It was given to me by someone who wishes to remain anonymous even to myself. I absolutely love it, so thank you to whomever sent it.

-Brianna