March 29, 2013

When I Grow Up, I Want to Be Everything

Did you do one of these posters in kindergarten?


I did. I remember it well. 

In the bottom left-hand corner was a space to write what you wanted to be when you grew up. The walls of the classroom were papered with posters of kids who wanted to be firemen OR police officers OR ballerinas. 

I wanted to be ALL of those things. And ALL the rest of the things. In fact, I remember one of my first existential quandaries: if there are only seven days in a week, how on earth will I find enough time to be ALL the things I want to be when I grow up? 

The solution, of course, was to have a different job every day of the week. Phew. Solved that one. I would just be an astronaut Monday, a teacher Tuesday, a farmer Wednesday, etc. (Yes, farmer was one of my kindergarten career choices. I blame it on Laura Ingalls Wilder.)

My childhood fantasy
Well, some life happened and I discovered that I don't particularly like heights, lesson planning, or cow poop. That narrowed down the career choices substantially. Plus, majoring in EVERYTHING in college would have taken me a little more than four years. 

But little did I know that some weeks, I would get my kindergarten wish. 

Like this week, for example. 

Most weeks of my life are pretty interesting. For work, I juggle a balance of tutoring/proofreading/blogging/copy editing/novel writing, and I like doing all those things. But last Wednesday, I added a new job to the mix: knit modeling.

My super-creative friend Audry asked me to model one of her creations for the top-secret book she's writing. It turned into an all-day adventure that blew desk jobs out of the water. First, we got to ride in the golf cart. Move over, Mr. Toad. 




There were also the wild animals--er, interesting features of the landscape. (The heap of sticks on the left, apparently, is a wood-rat nest. The thing in the purple sweater is anybody's guess.)

Photo courtesy of Audry Nicklin

We needed to find horses for the photo shoot, which ended up entailing half an hour of trekking through backwoods trails (don't worry, we had permission). But when we found them, it was well worth it. One of them tried to eat the golf cart, but this one just wanted carrots. I ended up getting horse cuddles in the bargain. 

Photo courtesy of Audry Nicklin
Laura Ingalls would have been proud. 

Does your line of work ever throw you surprise adventures?

(P.S. Audry wrote up her own take on the day. To hear her side of the story, click here.)

6 comments:

  1. I love it that you do something different every day of the week ^_^ Great post! (This is Anna btw)

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    1. Hi Anna! Thanks for stopping by! I love doing something different every day of the week, too...most of the time :)

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  2. Haha. Love this. Such fun you two had. :) And you look so cute with a horse.

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    1. Ha, thanks! I had fun with that cuddly horsie :)

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  3. What an exciting life!! Sounds like material for a...book :D...

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    1. Some days it is! Some days it's not. Such is life, right?

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