When first presented with the proverbial question by my parents and other adults around me, I was intimidated and caught off guard.   

“Now, April, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

After reciting off some nonconforming list of career options, I noticed the apprehension in my parents’ eyes. They did not light up and praise me with satisfaction, which was the reward my classmates received after giving ideal answers.

Well, in a country praised for being “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” Americans revel in the idea of the American Dream.

It is a distinctive drive to be superior and achieve success, along with the notion that all people are guaranteed that success, so as long as they work to their full potential.

Therefore, the conspiracy at hand is that which was embedded deeply into every red-blooded American--to grow up and begin one’s adult life with the “ideal” jobs.

Ideal jobs are prestigious and profitable such as a doctor, lawyer and engineer. Even the humanitarian-like jobs of firefighters, police officers and teachers are highly praised professions.

Going back to kindergarten, the local fire station graced us with the presence of a few of their men, in addition to Spot, the fire dog, for Career Day at the elementary school. They allowed a group of 30 or so curious and jovial children to enjoy a field trip of playing on the trucks and in the station, while imbedding us with knowledge of the earnest and heroic job of firefighters.

If it were not firefighters at the local fire station in your city, then it was police officers showing off a cop car and making the siren sound, or even to the not so infamous mailman with his mail sack somewhere else in the great U S of A to your boss or even your next door neighbor.

Starting at the first fruits of our childhood knowledge and awareness, we are faced with images of these careers. Mommy, daddy and constant propaganda, provided even through play-time with Dr. Barbie, taunted and conditioned us with images of the shiny, happy professions.

After I eventually fell victim to conformity, I remember bragging that I was going to become a Podiatrist. I was young and not yet knowledgeable  of my abilities with pen and paper, and I unwarily placed myself in the cookie cutter world.

Too seldom is the child in the third-grade art class not encouraged to do more with his or her artwork than enter it into a local or national contest. As the mothers sign their daughters up for ballet and gymnastics and fathers with their sons for Karate or baseball, too often there is only the desire for their children to excel in these activities as hobbies, but not as professional endeavors. 

I know there are students in education and pre-med right now who mentioned pursuing hobbies into adulthood and turning them into careers, for their parents to throw in their face the stability and decency of being a principal or an optometrist.

To those of you out there, I apologize for the sometimes limited American Dream.

The only way to beat it is to not conform.

 

April Reynolds is a junior journalism major from Jackson, Miss., and serves as a news editor for The Tech Talk. E-mail comments to akr011@latech.edu.