A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don’t Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up [Medium]
Exploring ‘How to Be Everything’ by Emilie Wapnick
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What did you want to be when you grew up? What was your answer to that when you were a child? Don’t worry, I won’t laugh.
Grown-ups only ask you that when you’re little so that they can gush about the cuteness of your response.
No-one cares about what you want to be when you grow up. No-one expects you to become an astronaut or a ballerina or a detective.
They only care that you pick a thing and stick to it. Not the thing you wanted to be as a child — that would be weird. I mean pick a grown-up thing. Get a job and that’s your lot in life.
What one thing do you want to do for the rest of your life at the expense of all your other interests? Do you feel uncomfortable answering that question? That’s what they meant.
What do you do?
You ever noticed how someone’s opening gambit when they meet you is to ask: “What do you do?” Instead of: “Who are you?”
W…
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