Becoming Yourself

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Me.

This exchange between the young child and the adult at the next table made me smile.

How often is this question asked of younger people with the expectation that the answer takes the form of an occupation. ‘What do you want to be’ is code for ‘what will you study’ or ‘what work will you do’.

It is a question that I have always questioned, and now even moreso.  

In a world where work is changing at an increasingly rapid pace, it makes more sense to think about the skills we have and might learn, what we value, like and dislike, what we need and want, now and into the future, and how we might adapt and learn and grow as things continue to change.

The wisdom of this child I overheard matches author Ursula K. Le Guin’s view that:

our job in growing up is to become ourselves.

It may well be wisdom that some of us not-children also need today, don’t you agree?!