"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
.......................................................
How can a child really answer that question? When they don't know how limitless the possibilities truly are?
I thought I knew what I wanted to be at least 4 times (of course there were other things I wanted to do but these I remember). First it was a figure skater, then it was a firefighter, then it was a dancer, and then it was a Navy SEAL. I held onto that last one for the longest. I remember I was staying after swim practice to do my own workout, a workout I had found on the Navy website for SEAL training. I was probably about twelve years old. I did this for two years, staying late just about every Sunday night to train. And then I found out it was a boys-only club. No girls allowed, crayon sign outside the gate and all. Just like in kindergarten. Suffice it to say, I was crushed. And so I poured myself into soccer. And I was actually pretty good. Then my knees started to go, and I was crushed once again (not half as much as I was about the boys-only SEAL club. I still think about it almost everyday).
So then what? I go to college, get a degree in Sociology and Math. Fun, interesting, but not my top career choices. Then I go to Pastry School in Colorado. Great trip, great people, great food. Got a certificate from that, come work in NYC - and realize that I really just want to decorate cakes (if I was going to work in Pastry Arts at all). Get a new job at this Medical Device company and am seriously surprised at how much I like it, and how good I have gotten at it.
But today I found something else. Something that actually made my gut clench like nothing has in a long time. Something I want.
I want to work with a comics company.
The things that I love in this world are a handful. Sarah comes first, always. Then in no particular order there's video games, cakes, cookies, and comics.
I've always loved comics. As a kid they taught me that it was okay to be different. And they helped me escape into a world where it didn't matter what was going on, or who I was, or how different I felt - I could be an X-Man. And I loved being an X-Man. I used to sneak into my brother's room and read whatever I could find. And although I don't remember which comics I read, or what happened in them, or what year they were from, I remember how they made me feel. And to this day I still feel it. They are an escape into a world where anything can happen. Anything.
I want to be part of that for someone else. I want to help shape a world for another kid who just needs to get away from everything going on around them. I want to make a difference for them the way comics made a difference for me. And I think I can make that happen.
Well, as they say - here goes nothing.
