The Question That Changed My Life

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” As children, a question posed to us as we learn about our world’s fictional and non-fictional heroes who inadvertently taught us to want to be just like them. No matter your age, you’re always expected to have an answer. But when we’re young, it’s ok if our response involves the impossible, a princess, Superman, or some flying hero. The adult who posed the question will still look at you with a smiling face and throw some version of “I’m sure you’d be a great, blank.” At one point, the question used to strike an array of exciting emotions within me, wonderment, excitement, and the opportunity for incredible potential. However, as I got older, the very same question made me feel a completely different way. Pressure, confusion, and even inadequacy was always my emotional response in the months leading up to my high school graduation. As the “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was code for, “What career do you see yourself making a living in?” Causing the lighthearted question to carry new weight, an expectation. While friends around me had quick and definite answers, I always found myself hesitating. As a good student with a good family, I believed I should know with certainty what I wanted to be; it was time. I should know the modern-day hero I wanted to become.

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However, I believe part of the struggle of picking one set career path was the leading examples by loved ones; that subsequently gave me too many options for the heroes I wanted to be. Before I was born, my mother received her master’s degree and left The United States to live and volunteer in various parts of Africa for nine and a half years. Despite being a single young adult, she adopted me in Zambia’s capital city Lusaka. She’s raised me with courage, humility, and endless love. She’s taught me success isn’t measured by how many degrees have your name on it. She is the hero I want to become. After years of running an international business they founded, my grandparents, now retired, married over 50 years. Have taught me the importance of integrity, to lead with honor no matter who’s watching. Perseverance, to finish whatever you’ve started no matter the obstacles you need to overcome. They are the heroes I want to become.

My mom always told me I could be anything I wanted, so I tried just about everything in my quest to find what that was. Art lessons, tennis, basketball, ballet, etcetera filled my schedule in elementary years. In high school, my extracurriculars surrounded traveling abroad, many agriculture-based initiatives, and publishing my book. I’ve done many things, worked hard, and reaped the reward, but could I see myself doing any of them forever?

But 2020, for me and many others, caused me to re-evaluate and take a closer look. I realized you don’t need to know with absolute certainty that the major you’ve chosen dictates who you are forever. I realized that we don’t have to worry so much about “becoming” as the heroes surrounding us have already shaped us into people we should be proud to be. So “What do I want to be when I grow up?” I want never to stop my desire to learn, so I can continue to lead others with confidence. To continue to use my voice and step confidently on platforms given to me. So when I grow up, when we grow up. I hope we never forget to tell others about the heroes from stories like mine. Who change the world in silence by impacting a few so that they can change many.

If you made it down here, thank you so much for reading! If you end up reading the book mentioned earlier let me know! I'd love to see how other people interpret it for their success!

This article was originally written and published by me on Medium.

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