I think it’s fairly natural to do this as a child. We want to feel safe and secure so we try to get with/go with the crowd. We don’t want to stand out. We intuitively know (or are taught in unpleasant ways) that being different makes us targets.
Then we hit those teenage and young adult years. High school and college can be a time of trying out different approaches. Maybe seeing if we really are rebels. It’s about testing ourselves against our own images of ourselves–and maybe the images our families have of us.
I imagine my family thought I would be married with grandchildren at my age. I’d have most likely been a teacher or maybe a librarian. I should ask them sometime what they imagined I would grow up to be.
I’m fairly certain bisexual, Wiccan, psychic wasn’t on that list.
[Tweet “What do you think your family thought you might grow up to be?”]
What about you? What do you think your family thought you might grow up to be? What did you want to grow up to be?
Strangely? I wanted to grow up to be a writer. My family probably saw that one coming though. HA!
I think this Four of Wands from the Housewives Tarot by Quirk Books captures this! She’s risen above it all but she’s supported by those mops because that’s the work she’s done!
Today’s affirmation:
I revel in my privilege of being who I am. I accept that my path has brought me from my family’s image of me to my image of me. I hold my connections to my past with gentleness and love. I release any hurt from that past. Loved and loving, I love each of you.
Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.
Four of Wands, Housewives Tarot, Quirk Books http://amzn.to/1sffRbH
Oh my, I’m not sure I’ve quite accepted my path, yet, though I’m working on it. Having taken the decision to publish in my own name, my family run the risk of finding out the strange things that I’m doing LOL! I also pulled a card yesterday that was about accepting your path, no matter how far it seemed to stray from what you originally intended. And I have to say, pagan author and teacher was never on my list of expectations, either…
This is so insightful! I don’t know what my family thought I would be when I grew up – but I always appreciated how my husband’s family never tried to mold him to be what they thought he should be. They were so busy with their lives that he spent all his time doing what he wanted. AND he is absolutely AMAZING!
Great post. Got me thinking/reflecting on my own life. I am pretty certain I am nothing like what my mom expected I would be…but my dad? Well my dad figured the sky was my limit….
It’s a really interesting question and I have no idea… they probably didn’t care that much as long as I went to Uni, got a nice job, got married, had kids… It all got a little bit tangled after the Uni bit.
I kept on changing my mind what I wanted to be, but now looking back I can see that what I really wanted was to be a dancer. That wasn’t even considered as a career. Not that my parents stopped me, it didn’t even occur to me that it was possible.
Arwyn, I love the quote from Joseph Campbell. “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” My family probably expected me to be a “farmer’s wife.” Oops! I recently had a chance to catch with a friend from 4th grade, which reminds me of my aspirations to be an artist and writer. Hey, my 4th grade self had a lot of wisdom! I am so happy to be doing healing/intuitive work and creating art and writing regularly.
I’m quite certain no one saw me as being an Artist….including myself! In fact, that part of me wasn’t even revealed to me until after the birth of my son. I don’t know what my parent’s expectations were….but I always wanted to be a mother…that is and always will be a big part of who I am. I’m still discovering the ‘Artist’ within me.
I am pretty sure my family expected me to be a college professor (what my brother wound up as) or a writer (still working on that.) What my high school classmates thought I would be was apparently “committed to an asylum for the criminally insane” (nope) or a hermit (closer than I like.)