When I get bigger, I wanna be…

A doctor.
A rockstar.
A millionaire.
A whale =)

Kids have the funniest plans for their futures, they think everything’s possible. I remember adding “thief” as one of my career aspirations (“you don’t have to work but you still make money, and you don’t have to wash yourself, either!”) “haha”
But once you do get bigger, there’s this big world screaming at you “WAKE UP!! What are YOU gonna do with your life?!” and too soon you have to face it: You’re not gonna be a doctor. Or a rockstar. Or a millionair. Not unless you have a special talent, work VERY hard andare a lucky person. And you’re never gonna be a whale. Don’t cry now, some things just aren’t ment to be!
The hardest part about choosing a job is to find something you love (or at least) like doing, but it also has to pay for the kind of lifestyle you want, your job has to work for you!! So even if you just love doing chalk on the sidewalk, streetartist might not be the best  job if you also like fast cars or going on vacation to Honolulu…

What I’m doing right now, working as a nanny, is obviously just temporarily. Trust me, I have a greater vision of my life. But for now it’s awesome, i get to travel a lot, I don’t have to worry about paying rent or food, … Whatever i earn is MINE=) 
For years it was my dream to become a psychologist, I didn’t think I’d ever change my mind. But it bothered me that so many people in Austria are studying psychology, and lots of them only because they don’t know what else to do. I was less worried about finding a job, I think if you really want something you’ll find a way to do it, it was more that I didn’t lke the thought of studying, I’m don’t think I’m very good with scientific projects, documentation, working on those papers, I need something more practical where I can actually DO what i want to do and not just learn about for 4(?) more or less boring years before I can start doing it.
My desicion not to study psychology put me right to where I started from. I had no clue what to do with my life, there was nothing I could picture myself being for the rest of my life, and I knew I had to take a break to find out, in this is where I landed, in a small town in New York =) Even though I’m going through some hard times, it was doubtlessly the best thing to do!  I just wasn’t ready yet for that tough decision: what is still gonna make you happy in 20 years? And to be honest, I didn’t think I was gonna make up my mind here, I’ve been thinking about that question for the past 4 years, so why would one more year make a difference? But it did. I came up with a couple of ideas of what I wanna be, when I “get bigger”

As my first (and so far only) winter here came closer I got obsessed with baking. I baked cookies almost every day, even though I didn’t have time for ANYTHING,  I HAD to to make something =) And believe it or not, I really thought I was gonne become a pastry chef, and don’t laugh, I was dead serious about it. No kidding. I even started writing an application, i never finished it though, I admit it was a bit ridiculous. Although I have to say that I still think I should be a chocolatier, but to become one you have to be a pasrty chef and then just specialice on chocolate, OR you go to Belgium, there you can do it directly.

After some time it became really clear to me what I’d absolutely LOVE: be a photographer. Everything seemed to fit (and still does) – you’re flexible, you can travel a lot if you want, you’re not doing the same thing every day, you’re creating something, there’s just so many possibilities. You can photograph people, fashion, food, places, animals – whatever you like. That’s just a dream job, and something that I could really picture myself doing for the rest of my life, you’re not gonna get bored with a job like that! Of course you have to work yourself up, but I do believe that it’s possible to be very succesfull as a photographer and that it would be the perfect job for me, I’d love it!

So besides that and my dreams of being a thief =) I remember wanting to be a writer. I would just sit down on my computer and make up stories, I’ve always been writing stories, about everything. I could barely write when i started writing, I loved it, and I still do (can you tell?!) That made me think that it might be a good think to pursue and focus more on, in terms of considering becoming a journalist and/or writer. Because it’s just what I love doing. But unlike with photography I’m not sure if you can really learn how to write and especially how to sell it, you HAVE to have a talent in the first place, and so far I’ve only been writing for fun – I don’t know if I’m any good. I do it because I enjoy it. But when I get into something I love to do lots of research about it, but I guess you can’t always decide what you wanna write about when it’s your job… But now that I’m moving up to Boston (I am so excited you have NO idea!!)  I’ll probably take a journalism class at Harvard, and I guess that’s the place to be if you wanna learn from the best and get a good start. And it looks good in ANY application, so that might make it easier for me to get good further education. And again, it’s something creative and diversified and the idea of doing it for a long time in my life doesn’t make me wanna die early… What really  encourages me is that I’ve loved writing all my life and still do, it’s kinda obvious that it’s worth a good thought!

And the best part of all this: you can combine it. Photography and Journalism go great together, and baking is great as a hobby! So in 20 years from now you might see an article + pictures of my homemade cookies or pastries in the newspaper =) *haha* Even though I don’t know yet what I’m gonna decide on, it feels great to have sort of a vision how my life might be like, and either one of those jobs (I’m talking about the last two now) would definitely make me happy and it doesn’t seem too unrealistic. And I don’t even have to become a pastry chef to become really “big” =)