"When I Grow Up..."

As I walked into work today, I reflected on growing up and my previous proclamation of the classic line: "When I grow up, I'm gonna be a..." When I was a wee lad, I think I had aspirations of being G.I. Joe or something equivalent to the adventures of the G.I. Joe world of hovercrafts and attack snowmobiles. Then during my middler years, my friends and I fantasized of being a big, studly football players, either for the Cleveland Browns or the Raiders (I think we got hooked on AFC teams because they were A) not in direct competition with the Vikings and B) located in glamorous cities like Cleveland and Los Angeles.) I remember we would play for hours in my front yard, pretending to be sports stars living the high life of (this is where it gets kind of weird) riding attack bikes with rockets and heatseeking missiles, and then returning from a day of winning games and hi-tech bike riding to our football cheerleader wives. As I reached high school, the dream changed from being a football legend to being a comic one, starring on Saturday Night Live and making the world laugh from my crazy on-stage and camera antics. (Pausing for reflection)

During college, I drifted into the world of filmmaking and pursuing a career writing, directing and starring in movies. I majored in Speech Communications and Film and felt very comfortable and gifted in the creative aspects of this career path. I also found a niche and passion for ministry while working as a counselor at a bible camp, and soon I was dreaming of combining both my film talents with my love for Jesus and youth ministry. Ahh yes, the options seemed so wonderful and wide-open, the dreamer in me continued to flourish and plan ahead for all of the amazing, world changing things I was going to do once I leapt out of college and into the real world. So, when I reached this "real world" as we all like to call it, it was quite the eye-opener when my idea bubble burst and I was scrambling to truly find where I fit in the overall scheme of life and whether or not I was going to be qualified enough to make it.

I realize that this is turning into more of a biography rather than a blog entry - so let me get to my point before the nostalgia really hits. Sitting at my desk, working as the Student Organization Coordinator at VCU is a great "job" - but definitely a far cry from the things listed above. Being a coordinator doesn't exactly equal the excitement of the hi-tech nuclear powered bikes and football playing days that I had envisioned when I was 10. Now, it doesn't mean that my work is not meaningful or that I actually long for those previous things, but I definitely still yearn for the spirit and dreamer mentality that surrounded those earlier years. To quote a favorite "Switchfoot" song: "We were meant to live for so much more...have we lost ourselves?"

This sums it up for me quite well. I don't want to lose the ability to dream and go after things that seem crazy impossible or world-changing like I once was so good at doing - perhaps too good at doing. I am earnestly trying to meet the needs of my employer yes, but I am also keeping my mind excited for the other opportunities that are yet to be grasped. I hope that you, my readers, are doing the same - for many of you have helped shape who and where I am as a "worker bee" in this large and complex hive we call "the real world." You all are in similar states of mind and deal with the same hardships as we all encounter. I hope that no matter what situation we all find ourselves in during our working years, that we would all happily proclaim that "when we grow up (which may or may not completely happen for some of us) we want to be many things, but above all and through it all, our focus is to be givers, lovers (no giggling) and changers to others in hopes to leave this world a better place than when we found it.

Lunch break is over, time to go back to work.