Day Four: Dream Big

What was your big childhood dream? Are you still pursuing it? If yes, how? If no, how did you reconcile that within yourself?

When I was 8 or 9, it had become a parlor trick of sorts for the neighborhood kids to ask me what I was going to be when I grew up because my answer was so ridiculous.

My stock answer: "I want to be an engineer, paleontologist, meteorologist, naturalist, professional baseball player, and conductor."

God, what a geek. I guess some things never change.

Today, my answer would be something like: "I want to be an engineer, lawyer, environmental/energy policy analyst, climate activist, and professional baseball player."

The strands that bind my 9 year old self with my 24 year old self are, I think, mostly related to discovering things about the outside world. Paleontologists dig deep and piece together history. Policy analysts do the same with disparate pieces of information to weave together a narrative of what the best courses of action might be.

In 15 years, who knows what my answer will be -- whatever my future aspirations, it's a good bet that being a professional baseball player will still make the list.