And what do you want to be when you grow up?

[rolanni]

Yanno, if anyone had asked me, back when I was a whippersnapper, what I'd be doing when I was fifty-five, I'd've probably told them that I'd be retired (which, if I'd stuck with the State of Maryland Merit System, I would have been, a couple of years, now) and the owner of a bookstore and modest Victorian cottage in Cape May, New Jersey.

Nice goal, kid, though I hear Cape May isn't what it used to be, beach-wise, what with all the medical waste washing up. And the town's a little iffy nowadays, too. The people from Away, they ruin everything...

I don't think I would have told my hypothetical inquisitor that there were fifteen published books with my name on the cover and more short stories than I feel like counting at the moment.

And while fifteen books published since 1988 is pretty pathetic by the standards of the day, it's interesting that the younger me thought it much more likely that I'd own a bookstore than write a novel.

As it happens, I owned -- well, co-owned -- a bookstore. It didn't work out.

The writing thing -- I'm not so sure that worked out, either. Considering that I'm back doing the secretary thing several years after, in an alternate universe, I'm in comfortable bookish retirement at an turn-of-the-century seaside resort, I guess the argument can be made that -- no, that didn't work out, either.

Which leaves me, at fifty-five, wondering what it is that I want to be when I grow up, this time.

Comments

[moon-happy.livejournal.com]

*bemused* here. It's not the world we were born into, is it?

I think you answered the question.

[bookmobiler.livejournal.com]

In 55 years hopefully you'll have at least another 15 books with your name on the cover, many more short stories and still waiting to grow up. But fighting it all the way.
Giving people pleasure has got to be way better than growing up. An growing up is vastly over rated any way.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

My mother is 78, and has never grown up. She brought us up the same way. To paraphrase one of my favourite films: "Never grow up! Never surrender!"

[reedrover]

I'm working on the same thing. In a parallel universe, I'm a concert pianist... or a Peace Corps worker... or a computer programmer. In real life, though in childhood terms, I tattle on people for money (I'm in the Quality Assurance dept.).

My mother is now 62. She has had three completely different careers along with her children, and still doesn't know what she wants to do when she grows up. Heck, she doesn't know where she wants to live muchless what she wants to do when she gets there. With that example ahead of me, I don't feel so bad about not having a "career." I wander from job to job doing the best I can for as long as I'm interested.

My parents never told me I had to be something or couldn't be something. The one thing my parents did insist on was that I put in an honest effort. "You should be a positive, productive member of society... If you want to be a janitor, that's fine. Just be a good janitor."

[deb-krol.livejournal.com]

Not that I'm grown up or anything--but I'm finally doing what I want to do, make a living with my own keyboard [that is, if I can ever learn how to be an editor and not just a hack writer, that is!!!]

When I grow up, I wanna be a novelist like you all are...I want to work for myself and not for somebody else, even though the current Day Job is pretty cool. But then again, they do say to Be Careful What You Wish For---You May Get It. So I guess I'd better be happy with where I'm at for the moment.

The writing thing -- I'm not so sure that worked out, either.

[(Anonymous)]

It worked out awfully well for us readers.

Mary Anne in Kentucky, soon to be 55.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

The writing thing -- I'm not so sure that worked out, either.

What defines "worked out"? If giving pleasure to readers and making the world a nicer place is part of working out, I'd say the writing thing worked out very well.