When I Grow Up…

Today The Princess told me that when she grows up, she doesn’t want to work. I sort of looked at her in “that way” – you know the way I mean, I’m sure – that I’m not raising you to not do anything, what do you mean you don’t want to work? She looked back at me and said, “I mean, that I don’t want to go away to work – I want to work at home like you do.” Oh. Much better.

It got me to thinking, though, what on earth am I going to do when these girls are in school? I am loving being home now, and being able to do part time work from the comfort of my own home, but someday, I’ll probably re-enter the full-time, outside the home workforce, and I just don’t believe that what I was doing before is going to cut it for me. When I started college, I initially chose a major that I believed would be profitable and make me some bucks – engineering. When I realized that I was just NOT cut out for that, I waffled a bit about what I wanted to do, but ultimately entered The Business School, and eventually focused on Marketing, the most creative of the endeavors (well, pre-Enron, anyway — personally, I think some of these accounting folks are WAY more creative than their marketing counterparts – you’d have to be). The thing about marketing, though, is that when the economy is slumping, marketing is usually the first to get cut… and the last thing employers are looking to replace. This is contrary to the fact that when times are toughest is when there is the most need, but, ah… I digress.

When I re-enter the “Real World” of work outside the home, I would really like to, for the first time, have a job that I really enjoy – one that allows me to do what interests me, that is actually FUN.

So, I’ve narrowed it down: I want to either open a bakery or become a personal trainer.

The irony, huh? Heck, I should probably do both – stuff people with sugar, and then help them work it off. Baking is one of my favorite things to do (in fact, The Princess and I made these cookies, minus the amaretto ice cream, this afternoon). I love the precision of measuring ingredients, blending, mixing, and the aroma of something yummy in the oven. I also take pride in the compliments I get after serving up these treats. My Christmas Eve Monkey Bread is the stuff of legends.

And the physical training aspect is something I would dig, mainly because my own experience with one was so enjoyable. She pushed and encouraged me to keep healthy and fit throughout my pregnancy with The Princess. Was it money well spent? Absolutely. From that, I began to take pride not only in being fit and active, but in taking care of myself and wanting others to feel that way too. Besides that – who wouldn’t dig wearing a pair of Nikes to work every day?!

Who knows – maybe I’ll do both? A combination workout studio/bakery. I could call it “Oxymoron” or “Defeating the Purpose”… I am just a study of contradiction, I guess.