Whimsical September

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What I Wanted to be When I Grew Up

Today I’m linking up with Momfessionals (a.k.a. one of the cutest mom blogs ever) and sharing about what little ol’ me wanted to be when I grew up. Oh boy! Here we go. 🙂

I think most little kids have one job in particular that they dream of doing one day, and younger Erica was no exception. For as long as I can remember I wanted to be the 5 o’clock news anchor before eventually moving my way up the ladder and making it big with either ABC or NBC as one of their national anchors in NYC. I’m telling you – big dreams! Whenever someone asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I’d respond with “to be the next Katie Couric”. I smile just typing this because I can remember that 15 year old so well who was always confident that she’d find a way to make her dreams come true.
In high school I had a passion for writing and reporting, so I joined our school’s newspaper staff as well as became a teen contributor for our local newspaper The Huntsville Times. I knew that television broadcasting and written journalism all went hand-in-hand, so I focused on the journalism part until I got to college.

Then-Governor of Alabama Bob Riley came to visit my high school, so I begged to get out of class to interview him for the school paper. Super cool experience!
Funny story about this picture. 🙂 During the spring semester of my senior year of high school I was an office aide, and a mom came into the attendance office to check out her son. She asked the attendance lady if Alabama head football coach Mike Shula had a recruiting visit scheduled, but the attendance lady told her “No, we definitely would have known about that!”. The mom went on and on about how she swore it was him in the parking lot, so I bolted out of the office and down to my journalism teacher’s classroom. I interrupted her english class, grabbed the camera and journalism badge, and went on a hunt. I peeked into the head football coach’s office window, and there he was! I waited outside for a few minutes for them to come out, and the principal and assistant principal were with him. I asked if I could ask him a couple questions for the school paper and eventually snuck in a personal picture with him. I remember it like yesterday! At this point I already knew I was going to attend UA in a few months, so meeting Coach Shula was incredible!
Anyway!
One reason I attended The University of Alabama was because my best friends were going there their communications department is ranked in the top 10 for public schools in the nation. I was giddy during orientation as we listened to different professors (namely Mr. Oakley) share stories about where their former students are now, and my dreams just kept growing. I officially declared my major as Journalism and was ready to rock and roll.
One year later I felt big-time discouraged after a conversation with my advisor who let me know that my journalism major would prep me only for a job as a written journalist, not as a news anchor. Since becoming a news anchor was my ultimate goal, he advised I switch my major to Broadcasting, so I did.
After researching the backgrounds of some of my favorite anchors, I realized that most of them started their careers as newspaper journalists, so I continued my hand at reporting. I spent the summer shadowing a local newspaper journalist in Huntsville and joined the university’s newspaper staff as a contributing writer as soon as I started my sophomore year. My first article turned out to be the front page centerpiece article, and I felt sky high! I’ll never forgetting going to pick up a copy of the Crimson White and seeing that “by” line with my name beside it.
Fast forward to the spring semester of my sophomore year. I’d been dating Jamie for a few months and had a hunch early on that he very well might be the guy I marry. I was frustrated because I’d been working hard for months trying to land a broadcasting internship for the summer and was having zero luck getting my foot in the door. As I did more research about the ladder news anchors typically have to climb I realized that the first few years entail jobs that I didn’t want, though I’d be willing to do them if I wasn’t falling in love with this Army guy.
Well, darn.
At the same time that I was feeling very frustrated with my major, I was also working part-time at my church’s local daycare. I loved that job and every single thing about it. I loved working with a whole room of people every day, I loved interacting with parents, and I loved the schedule (no holidays, no weekends, no evenings, etc.). I was so happy doing that job.
For about a month I took some time to realistically look at what I was doing, where I was going, and what I truly wanted as an adult now that I had a little bit more information. Though I’d always dreamed of becoming a big time news anchor, I didn’t want the lifestyle and the schedule that came with it. I also knew that I wanted a future with Jamie and that his future meant the Army.
As an adult I started realizing what I really wanted out of a career and that teaching had all of those things. I quickly realized that teaching high school English sounded like a dream. I could still use and share my passion of writing with others while having the schedule I never knew that I’d always dreamed of.
And if things worked out with this Army guy, I could hopefully have both him and my career, too. 🙂

The final nail in the coffin happened on a Wednesday night at a big worship service called The Well. My college minister Ben was preaching, and as he lead everyone in a closing prayer he prayed for everyone who was wrestling with major life decisions. I kid you not, the first thing out of his mouth was “God, maybe there’s someone in this room who’s considering becoming a teacher one day, but they’re scared to make the leap”. I burst into tears because I knew what I had to do.

So in April of my sophomore year I officially changed my major. I was immediately a whole year behind in classes, so the next few years were really busy as I took on heavy course loads to catch up.
I loved nearly every second of my education classes and never once regretted my decision to switch career paths. I wouldn’t say that being a teacher is absolutely my dream job, but being a teacher does have so many of my passions and dreams wrapped up into it just like I knew it would, which kind of does make it a dream job. 🙂 I loved working as a teacher for a few years and feel anxious to return to the classroom in a few years once the time is right.
As far as becoming a news anchor goes, I still find myself wondering how different life would be if I would have hit the ground running to reach that goal. Sometimes I watch Good Morning America and wonder if they’re having as much fun as they look like they are, and I wonder if I would have loved it that much too. I fortunately don’t have a single regret about giving up that high school dream because I feel like I’ve achieved every checkmark I’ve ever wanted – to marry the love of my life and become a mom. Anything else I achieve career-wise is just extra. 🙂

Here’s a previous post from a link up with Momfessionals:
Show & Tell: Where Our Names Come From

Questions:
Do I have any readers that, by chance, also dreamed of becoming a news anchor?
Do any of my military wife readers also have teaching degrees? Do you feel like your teaching degree is as conducive to military life as you hoped it would be?

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