What was your childhood ambition?
Michael: Age 9
Every night Michael had a small 'routine' before going to bed. After some grumbling and mumbling about why he couldn't stay up later than what he was supposed to, he would fail miserably at trying to convince his grandfather to let him stay awake for at least half an hour more, and then he'd proceed to brush his teeth, get a drink of water, and (still grumbling and mumbling) would get his things into his backpack before going to bed.
Tonight was no exception.
He had already tried (and failed) to make his grandfather see the importance of staying up to finish watching a show that he had become interested in, and he had even brushed his teeth and had gotten his glass of water; he just needed to make some sense of the mess on his bed before going to sleep. On his bed, his books and notebooks had been carelessly been spread all over as he had finished his homework an hour and a half earlier. His homework for the next morning had been fairly simple, some math problems and an paper about what he wanted to be when he grew older.
The hard part hadn't been writing the paper - that had been the boring part - but rather it was that he hadn't known what he wanted to be. In the week that he had to write about it he switched ideas almost every day; from being a doctor (that got canceled because science bored him), to being a professional athlete (he wasn't much of a team person anyway, he had concluded). In the end, one thing won over all of them: to be a cop. Back in first grade, he remembered, an uncle of a classmate of his had gone to his class as a guest speaker; since then he had seen policemen with such respect that being one would be cool. Very cool, actually. So, that's what his paper was about. As he leafed through it he knew that he probably should have spent more time on it, but...well, it was done. And he was happy with his decision.
"Michael!" The voice came from the kitchen, and Michael already knew by the tone in his grandfather's voice that if he stayed up any longer he'd be in trouble. "Aren't you supposed to be asleep already?"
Instead of answering, Michael rolled his eyes a little and finished putting his things away. Instead of being a cop, he decided as he pulled back the covers of his bed, he just wanted to grow up, to be older, to be a grown up already so everyone would stop trying to treat him like a kid. Suddenly that was all he wanted.
Every night Michael had a small 'routine' before going to bed. After some grumbling and mumbling about why he couldn't stay up later than what he was supposed to, he would fail miserably at trying to convince his grandfather to let him stay awake for at least half an hour more, and then he'd proceed to brush his teeth, get a drink of water, and (still grumbling and mumbling) would get his things into his backpack before going to bed.
Tonight was no exception.
He had already tried (and failed) to make his grandfather see the importance of staying up to finish watching a show that he had become interested in, and he had even brushed his teeth and had gotten his glass of water; he just needed to make some sense of the mess on his bed before going to sleep. On his bed, his books and notebooks had been carelessly been spread all over as he had finished his homework an hour and a half earlier. His homework for the next morning had been fairly simple, some math problems and an paper about what he wanted to be when he grew older.
The hard part hadn't been writing the paper - that had been the boring part - but rather it was that he hadn't known what he wanted to be. In the week that he had to write about it he switched ideas almost every day; from being a doctor (that got canceled because science bored him), to being a professional athlete (he wasn't much of a team person anyway, he had concluded). In the end, one thing won over all of them: to be a cop. Back in first grade, he remembered, an uncle of a classmate of his had gone to his class as a guest speaker; since then he had seen policemen with such respect that being one would be cool. Very cool, actually. So, that's what his paper was about. As he leafed through it he knew that he probably should have spent more time on it, but...well, it was done. And he was happy with his decision.
"Michael!" The voice came from the kitchen, and Michael already knew by the tone in his grandfather's voice that if he stayed up any longer he'd be in trouble. "Aren't you supposed to be asleep already?"
Instead of answering, Michael rolled his eyes a little and finished putting his things away. Instead of being a cop, he decided as he pulled back the covers of his bed, he just wanted to grow up, to be older, to be a grown up already so everyone would stop trying to treat him like a kid. Suddenly that was all he wanted.