Calling....

Do people really expect you to know what you want to be when you grow up? If so, when do you grow up? How am I supposed to know when I have to wear my "Big-boy" pants as scheide puts it? When, then, can I take them off....When we are adults, are we allowed, ever, to revert back to childhood? Or, does that desire signify that you are not an adult?
I do not have all of the answers to these questions, but I do have some ideas.....I say ideas because I am certain that, as I experience more of life, my thoughts will change. Since I am around kids all day, many looking to go to college, they are always asking me "Mr. P, when did you decide to become a Spanish teacher". They laugh when I tell them "Around graduation time" as if they expected something along the lines of "Well, since Jesus spoke to me and said "Rick, you will be a teacher". Sad to say folks, that usually is not how it happens...I realize that teaching is my thing for now, how ever long now is, is up for grabs. I refuse to define who I am by my job. I do not think a calling and a job are one in the same. Am I called to teaching? Yes. Do I have to be a teacher to do so? No.
I think that I grew up in college, around junior year, when family situations made me become completely independent financially. I learned the value of work and, more than anything, that exploration and questioning are needed to really live. I started to accept life for what it can be and NOT what it is now....People make that mistake so often. Life is a mixture of what you want it to be and what it is for now. You grow up when you have to, when you accept that you cannot control what happens in life, but that you CAN control how you react to those occurrences.
Wanting to take off those "big boy" pants does not mean that you are not an adult. To me, it means that you are an adult realizing that you need a break, so darn it, take one!
In a nutshell, I do not think that you ever really "know" what you want to be when you grow up because growing up is a process, not a single event :)