When I Grow Up, I Want To Be A........

Remember saying this when you were a kid?

I certainly do.

There were a number of things I wanted to 'be'.

Firstly, a doctor....probably because my mother was not well.

I just realized this as I wrote it. Hm-m-m

Then I wanted to be a baker. I loved being in the kitchen

watching my mother bake all sorts of things when she was feeling better.

I could bake things at a very young age. It all made sense to me.

And still does.

There was a short time in high school I wanted to be a missionary in Africa.

I think because it was far away and life would be quiet....so I thought.

In university I didn't know what I wanted to do.

This was very typical for the time, until one year that 

I took off from university, I was a substitute teacher

at a very tough junior high school.

My eyes were opened up that year.

I wanted to make a difference for these kids.

So, I went to another university, after I got my Arts degree,

and enrolled in the Education program with a focus on

Special/Adapted Education.

I was a teacher for almost thirty years.

I loved working with the students.

I didn't particularly like the system itself for so many reasons.

Another story for another time.

After my Education degree, I needed one more course to obtain

a higher teaching level, so I took a dance movement course.

It was this course that helped me realize that dance would have been

 a very rewarding pursuit for me.

So I took another basic dance course after this

 and when we moved to Vancouver, I took more lessons.

I think what I liked is the ability dance gave me to express myself.

I obviously needed an outlet.

I am not one to have regrets about the past,

but I have wondered on occasion what a life as a dancer would have been like.

How about you?

What did you want to be when you grew up?

*******************

Here are a few photos of me as a 'dancer' in the

Nova Scotia International Tattoo in 1989.

Getting ready for the 'jive' number.

The Charleston....

Yes, that is Ron on the right.

he was in the production that year as well.