Will You Change the World?

When we’re growing up we don’t often focus on the present as we’re always looking towards the future and wondering what’s going to happen and what we’re going to be. I think I went through a whole list of things that I wanted to be –  everything from doctor to lawyer, to nurse to famous actor, pop singer, teacher and everything in between. In fact I did a lot of these things –  I’ve been a Performer, I’ve been a teacher, I have worked in bars, I have been a waitress and I’ve been a cook and now finally I’m a writer. It finally feels like I’m doing something I was always meant to do and it’s a wonderful feeling to finally have found your place and where you weren’t meant to be. I’ve been sat here watching Alyssa this morning as she walks around the room singing to herself and playing with her toys and I’m just wondering to myself, what will she be? What will she do? Will she change the world? Well whatever she is, she can be who she wants to be. She may not change the world but she certainly changed mine…

We have such great expectations for our babies don’t we?! I don’t think we intentionally put pressure on them to be anything at all but continual comments of “Oh I’m sure she’s going to be something fabulous like a Doctor or a Lawyer!” can stick in a child’s mind as they grow and whether you mean it to or not, that will soon become a burden that they themselves create.

Of course, as long as they grow up safe, healthy and happy it doesn’t really matter what they are, does it? I can remember talking with Alyssa’s dad when I was both pregnant and when she was a few months old. I think to start with, he was secretly disappointed he hadn’t had a boy he could take off to football (though that soon changed when he fell head over heels for his daddy’s girl) and so from before she was even born, he used to joke that he was going to take her to football practice and that she’d be amazing. I would laugh and say something like “Ha Ha Ha, fat chance – she’s off to ballet to become a Prima Ballerina” or something to that affect both awfully boxing her in and out of stereotypical roles but actually the truth is, it’s not really up to us, is it?

A few weeks ago she did infact start a dance class as it has been obvious for some time that music and dance are part of her soul. She loves every minute of it and the pride she so obviously displays when putting on her uniform is absolutely adorable. In a few months when she turns 3 she will move up to the next level and actually go into proper classes for ballet, tap and modern. But this isn’t set in stone. If it turns out she doesn’t enjoy it and that music and dance are merely something she wants to enjoy then that is absolutely fine and we can move on and find something else she is passionate about and this might have no baring on what she does in the future for a career.

I can’t currently imagine her any older than she is and she is already growing much too fast for my liking – it seems to be slipping away much too fast. This time next year I will be enrolling her for the start of school and I cannot believe that it has come around so quickly. Whatever my strong independent little girl decides she wants to do in the future then I will do my very best to support her in anyway I can because the only thing that is important is that she is happy. Yes I do sit and wonder if she will change the world – will she be a celebrity? A scientist? An engineer? A teacher? An Author? Really it doesn’t matter because she already has changed the world – she changed mine just by being born and showing me what true love really is.