When I grow up...

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Adults just love to ask kids that question, don't they? My answer changed every few years...

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a doctor... And then my mom told me, "that's nice but you're gonna have to study very hard and for a very long time..." so I changed my mind!!! And this is about as close as I got to becoming a doctor:

Trying out a friend's coat at Manipal University, 2006

It's a shame really, I think I look pretty darn good in that coat, non? And then there's Grey's Anatomy which makes it all look so glamorous and cool and exciting and adventurous... Sure they sleep with people to get over their depression and do the darndest things sometimes but when they're actually saving lives with all that medical stuff, it's pretty exciting. (Hmmm, I wonder what real doctor's think of Grey's Anatomy?)

Well, anyway it's too late to become a doctor now, so all I'll have is that picture and Grey's Anatomy to live vicariously through :P

Before I wanted to be a doctor, my oldest and bestest friend, Shaon (we literally grew up together in Zambia) once asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said, "I want to be a sister". I don't actually remember this, but Shaon makes it a point to remind me once in a while because she thinks it's funny :P

Me and Shaon on a road-trip in Zambia. Yes, I'm the short one :P

I still have no idea what I meant by that especially since I have a brother who is almost 9 years older than me so I already was a sister in that sense and apparently I didn't mean a nurse or a nun, "I just want to be a sister!"

Amongst other things that I wanted to be, there's Pianist which didn't really go much farther than Grade One Piano!

Pilot. Well, now that I have glasses, I guess there goes that too... And come to think of it, I'm not much of a fan of planes so that just might be a problem! :)

Speech therapist. Yeah, I had this major obsession with this field for about a month while I was on my year off after school. I had great plans of going to Manipal and everything but that didn't work out either because apparently you need to have a background of Physics to pursue this field!?! Still don't really understand that...

Meteorologist. Because the sky and all things related to it absolutely fascinate me. But again, Physics. A subject that just completely and utterly goes over my head. Just like Economics :P

Photographer for National Geographic. I know, that's pretty specific. I just think Nat Geo is AMAZING. My math teacher at school used to subscribe to their magazine so while I wasn't getting help on my terrible math prep in her room, I used to flick through the magazines and be awed by the amazing articles and photos.

Me with penguins in South Africa, a long long time ago...

Well, I haven't completely given up on this one I guess. I still love taking photos. Maybe one day I will go to Antartica and take photos of penguins. Why penguins? Because they are the most adorable and amazing creatures, remember? :) Provided we humans don't manage to melt all that ice away in a couple of years...!

And if you ask me now; on the brink of starting my third and final year of college, majoring in Sociology, in approximately three weeks, my answer will be... "Ummmmm..."

And I kind of like not knowing. It's like a treasure hunt, looking for the clues at each step and corner of my life and I have a basic idea of what I want my contribution to the world to look like so hopefully that'll help to keep me on the right track!

Plus, if I get lost, there's always that bakery I want to open up! ;)

So, what do you want to be when you "grow up"!? :-)