WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

©CherieElainePhotography2020

One of the most precious things to listen to is a child telling you what they want to be when they grow up. A ballerina, an astronaut, a trash truck driver, a farmer like dad or the guy on stage who sings at church. 

When you were a kid, when someone asked you, what did you say you wanted to be when you grew up? Do you laugh at those dreams now? Or is some aspect of your life a reality based on what you used to want to do?

Or have you forgotten?

When I was in 2nd grade, I had a secret desire. All my friends at school were taking dance classes. They practiced together on recess. All I wanted to do was be part of their club. "I could be a dancer, too....." but..... my dad was intent on being a Nazarene pastor and dancing was an evil not allowed in our home. 

Sadly in 6th grade, it got worse. It was the dawning of the line dance. I was an avid and talented violinist and when our strolling orchestra would finish a concert, we would often land at the local Shakey's Pizza in a back room with loud music and there would be dancing. I had to sneak those precious far and few between moments. 

Really, the dreams rounded out to something like this:

1. Marry a rock star. Or movie star. Or Shaun Cassidy if he's available.
2. Be a rock star. 
3. Be a dancer. 

Well, two out of three ain't bad. 

In reality, I had four dreams, because in eighth grade, the talent of writing emerged. By high school, writing was all I wanted to do. Well, besides saving all the animals and living like Henry David Thoreau. If I could have gone to college, I wanted to go to Princeton and be a journalist.  

But college was discouraged... Just get married....so I did. And he wasn't a rock star, or a movie star, or Shaun Cassidy. 

I LOVED music. I didn't have a great rock voice, but I had a great voice. We discovered at a young age (I was in 4th grade) that I was a very good musician. I started playing violin and in 7th grade, guitar. Music, in all of it's transformation, made the desire to be a professional musician clear.  

Second grade, sixth grade, and then, high school. I knew I had a propensity for dance, but no opportunity. Oh but I loved moving my body! It just didn't seem that it would be in the cards for me. A little clubbing and out with friends, I would sneak it in when I could. 

May I ask you again? What did you want to do when you grew up? Sometimes we have to dig really, really deep to figure those things out. Sometimes we actually work our a**es of for it for it never to become reality. 

But sometimes, it does, we just don't recognize it because it isn't what we thought it would look like. 

No, I didn't become a rock star, or marry one, but I did become a professional musician. First I started a children's choir called Joyful Noise, for kids in elementary school. Later on I became a music teacher, writing curriculum called Melody Moppets, and inspiring littles to demand music in schools as they went into elementary grades. My activist spirit led me to fight for that very thing. 

My first Melody Moppets class. :-) 

My desire to be a dancer manifested itself when I discovered Zumba. I lost 89 pounds. I worked hard to complete one entire class. I danced and danced and danced. And then? I became a successful instructor. I wasn't just dancing. I was teaching. And more than once, my classes performed on stage. It was amazing! Later, Refit became my happy place, another dance platform that I taught. Now I just dance around the living room. :-) But I was a professional dancer. 

My original Zumba class onstage. 

And guess what else? I became a journalist. In 2016, at the age of 52, I completed college with a Bachelor Arts degree that said that I was indeed a writer. I worked for a small newspaper in town, and numerous times I both wrote and photographed the front page features. 

Copies of my front page articles. 

I'm not boasting about my own good fortune, I'm boasting about what God can do with those dreams you have! Read these words from Psalm 37:4-5: 

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act.

Oh, beloved readers, don't give up those child-like desires! 

Why do we quit dreaming and believing and building with blocks until it is a master creation? 

Someone along the line came and said "NO." And we believed it. And it was a lie. 

Your desires might very well change as time goes on. I had no idea I was going to become a photographer. That desire came late in life. I was a homeschool mom who realized she wasn't getting school pictures and my career grew from there. 

©CherieElainePhotography2020

I have a "new-ish" dream now. It's been years in the making, but it is the one I am passionately heading toward. I don't ever want to retire, so right now while that is what a lot of people my age are thinking about, I'm thinking about my next new thing. I want to open an art gallery that supports all genres of art, that supports artists like myself who were told "no." I want to be their "yes." 

My vision board for my next big dream. 

Oh my loves, don't quit dreaming. Don't ever quit. 

What do you want to be as a grown up? 

God, forgive me for doubting you. You put desires deep in our hearts and nurture our enthusiasm from a young age. Forgive us when we can't see the "yes" you've already given us. Please let us SEE! And let that be our courage that you are going to be faithful to complete that next big thing. In Jesus name! 

Start small. Dream big. And pray.

I love you. I believe you can!