Today this happened to me.
I babysit at a church here in Athens every Sunday morning. I started my freshman year as a favor to a friend of a friend, and I love the families and kids so much, I’ve stuck around.
Last year, I kept a 10 year old named Margaret. I would come home from babysitting and talk to Tori about how it wasn’t even babysitting, but it was more or less just hanging out with my 10 year old friend. We’d take turns playing her nintendo, or reading her book and just talking about school and her friends and family in general. She’s so great! We got along really well and she still comes to visit me in the nursery on Sunday mornings.
Today she was helping me pick up after the kids left and we were talking about school. I know that math and science are her favorite subjects and that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up (something that I shared at that age as well). We talked about her classes and I even shared a little bit about my classes with her.
When our conversation broke, she turns to me and goes,
“Meghan, what do you want to do, like, when you grow up? What are you doing after college?”
I give her the same answer I’ve given her and everyone else who asks me this.
“That’s a great question.”
This is where I drop my head and let it hit me one more time that yes, a year from now, I will be “grown up.”
Her response was priceless.
“That’s what you said two weeks ago, Meghan! You still haven’t figured it out yet?”
I thought it was hilarious but also very telling of how your perception of life and growing up change as you get older. To Margaret, growing up seems so simple; deciding what to do with your life is as easy as making the decision and doing it.
When you get older, you know that’s not always the case. Things get in the way that distract you from your dream or set you off course. Sometimes you make sacrifices and sometimes you abandon it all together.
Even though I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do or what my absolute dream end-game is, I do know that when I figure it out, when it clicks, nothing is going to distract me from it.
Tags: babysitting, funny, growing up, kids, weekend