2013 Meme: Topic # 6 -- life prediction
Day 6: How is your life now different from what you expected as a child? How is it similar?
I guess it depends at which point(s) I look at my expectations. When I was little I could not really imagine an adult future at all. I think I've written here before that one of the clearer memories I have of such a projection was when I was five or so and imagined a future female commune. But that didn't include what kind of work I would do, or anything. At later ages, I imagined being a writer or an archaeologist or a professor of history or a French translator. I never really imagined being a teacher, especially a middle school teacher. I think if I'd imagined it at all as an outcome I would have thought of myself as a high school teacher, and that thought still recurs to me. Hey, I've got another fourteen years (not including this one) in the classroom, so maybe I'll graduate to high school and view that as a second career. I never imagined having a progressive disease -- who does? So diabetes was not in my future projection. To be honest, as a kid, I never fantasized about marriage or even about having kids myself. I sort of assumed I would, but didn't think about it much. At various points I imagined living permanently outside of the United States, but I didn't know then how important being near family would be to me. I think I would not be shocked as a five year old to see myself as a 46 year old, all told.
I guess it depends at which point(s) I look at my expectations. When I was little I could not really imagine an adult future at all. I think I've written here before that one of the clearer memories I have of such a projection was when I was five or so and imagined a future female commune. But that didn't include what kind of work I would do, or anything. At later ages, I imagined being a writer or an archaeologist or a professor of history or a French translator. I never really imagined being a teacher, especially a middle school teacher. I think if I'd imagined it at all as an outcome I would have thought of myself as a high school teacher, and that thought still recurs to me. Hey, I've got another fourteen years (not including this one) in the classroom, so maybe I'll graduate to high school and view that as a second career. I never imagined having a progressive disease -- who does? So diabetes was not in my future projection. To be honest, as a kid, I never fantasized about marriage or even about having kids myself. I sort of assumed I would, but didn't think about it much. At various points I imagined living permanently outside of the United States, but I didn't know then how important being near family would be to me. I think I would not be shocked as a five year old to see myself as a 46 year old, all told.