What do you want to be when you grow up? How many times has your answer to that Question changed over the years?
My first memory of having an opinion on that was a lonnnnnnnnnnng time ago when I decided I wanted to be a waitress. I think I liked the idea of filling out the order pad at the time. I learned my freshman year of college work study that dining hall indentured servitude did not count. Running the gazillion degree 50 lb trays of food from kitchen to the serving area was not the glamour I had imagined. Loading dirty dishes into the hot steamy dish washing beast while the old sophomore "lifers" suggested you weren't exactly pulling your weight? Also not my cup of tea. Let's be honest, That was the first job I had ever held...if 3 days and a lot of sobbing equated to "holding" a job.
At the same time, it may be important to note that I was in school as an accounting major. It took about a week longer than it did in the dining hall for me to realize that accounting was also not the ideal career choice for me. It may have taken 10 days to realize that, but it took 3 years for me to put a fork in it. The thing that probably threw me over the edge occurred the day after I returned from spring break junior year. A classmate asked me what I thought about the Professor. In actuality, he was my favorite of all the accounting drones. "oh no, did he assign a lot of homework yesterday??" I asked cluelessly. "NO!". She said. "He died!!". OK. I got the message, enough was enough, I was done. It was a shame that such a nice man was taken out so that I would finally give up yet another career that I had selected because - again - there were some really cool forms to fill out.
As a result of my ditching my major after completing my junior year, I got to spend the summer taking classes. To supplement my income, I got a job as a...waitress! This time it was for real. I got the houndstooth form fitting boobalicious uniform AND the cool order pad...jackpot!!! During training, I was told that I would have a long career in this field. It was long for me. It lasted as long as my summer school did. During that summer I learned a lot. 1) That iced coffee did not mean a small mug of coffee with 3 ice cubes in it. 2) that holding up the 1/2 black 1/2 yellow bananas to show he customer what was about to go into her banana split was NOT the appropriate protocol. 3) It is also not okay to suggest to a line of customers who are competing in the Empire State games the next day that if they wanted to make curfew they should probably try another restaurant, and oh, by the way, can you please stop throwing silverware at us??
It was also this summer that I determined I would like to be Darrin Stevens...Advertiser... I wanted to write the words that made the whole world shop. And I'm pretty sure that I would have been a genius at it. But you know where they put a creative genius in NYC without a portfolio? It's called the media department. You plan where the cool ads you aren't writing will get placed and you buy the media space for where those not as brilliant as they could have been ads will be viewed. I worked at one of he top agencies in the country. I learned negotiation skills, and that it sucked to be you on the day your boss forgot she had an important meeting when getting dressed and you were the one wearing a nice suit that would fit her. I may never forget putting that suit back on at the end of the hot day with someone else's fresh sweat rings adorning it.
Eventually I sort of fell into what I do now. It was not planned, but it was good. I've been in the same industry for somewhere around 17 years now. I like it. I like the people. But it isn't what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be a wedding planner. I want to create the fairytale, the dream for some lucky bride week after week after week. With one teensy weensy complication. I want to create MY dream for them. And I want them to give me a (huge) budget and I want them to tell me their favorite color and something special about them and then I want them to shut the F up and let me create my vision. And I don't want thir opinion Or their assistance, unless they assist me by saying "you are amazing, please take another $50,000 and see what you can do with it.". And when it is over, they will say "it was more perfect than I ever could have imagined. I would like to introduce you to my friend Brad. He is thinking of proposing to his girlfriend Angelina and would like your advice.". But you know what? Angelina would probably want to host it at an orphanage somewhere where diamond encrusted dinner napkins are considered "ostentatious" and that just isn't my dream for her. Maybe I should try writing instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment