Last weekend, Ashley and I went to visit our friends who just had a baby a few weeks ago. While there, their oldest daughter, who's only about 4 years old, was pulling "splinters" out of her "patients." Our friends told us that their daughter has decided she wants to be a doctor when she grows up.
I love to see that kind of ambition in kids, it's very refreshing. As adults we look at the world differently than we did when we were kids. So many of us -- for one reason or another -- lose that dream of being a doctor or a spaceman. When I look back at the things I wanted to be growing up I don't think I was ever that ambitious. Although I will say wanting to be the red Power Ranger, who was the leader, was a pretty lofty goal.
Truth be told, I had some fairly unrealistic goals for myself while growing up.In fact, I didn't come up with a single feasible idea until right before I graduated high school. For the majority of my teen years, I wanted to be a musician, and I spent every waking moment playing guitar or the drums and reading about my favorite musicians. I remember reading an article about Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, a personal icon at the time, where he said he covered himself in tattoos so he'd never be able to get a real job and would have to become a famous musician. That sounded like a brilliant plan to 16-year-old-me, and that's what I was going to do the instant I graduated.
Luckily, that didn't happen. (Never has there been a bigger sigh of relief.) My senior year, I had an English teacher who inspired me to be something else -- in fact, he inspired me to be what I am now. When I look back at all the years I wasted trying to be something that was never going to work out, I think of what phases my daughter will go through as she grows up.
While I hope that as a parent I'm able to help her realize what she's good at so she can pursue something in that direction, I can't help but think things might be easier if a child's life was built the way you build a Dungeons & Dragons character.
Imagine finding out you're going to be a father and the doctor hands you a blank character sheet and a handful of six-sided-die. You and your partner look at this blank sheet of paper with great hope as you prepare to write in a name, height, weight, hair color, eye color, gender and race (not black or white ... dragon born or high-elf or human even). Your doctor, a fair and generous dungeon master, allows you to assign the roll of the die to any of the six attributes you wish -- strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. Then you choose a character type for an added bonus, and there you have it, your little one is on their way to conquering whatever made-up world they're playing in.
But maybe that would take some of the fun out being a parent. Getting to watch her enthusiasm in wanting to be the doctor to cure AIDS one day and the first person to invent feasible clean energy the next (see, ambition) is going to be exciting. I can't wait for the day that she's in my lap and we're reading the some classic Fantastic Four (remember last week?) and she interrupts to say, "Daddy, I'm going to be the first woman to step on Mars," or "I'm going to make time travel a reality for all mankind" (what an extensive vocabulary for such a young girl).
Yeah, this girl is going to do some great things in her life, and I can't wait to be there for every single one of them.
For more head over to www.thejedidad.wordpress.com or follow me on Twitter at @TheJediDad. May the force be with you.
cpinkard@blythevillecourier.com