Just Like Barbie

Ok, so I called this post "Just Like Barbie" because like that famed doll, there are many professions I'd love to have in my lifetime. Obviously, all of them aren't feasible, and I hear you, yeah you, saying" Mere, you can do anything you put your mind to!" Well, no. Life doesn't work that way. So since this is my blog, and this is my little mind escape, I'm going to write out my dream jobs here.

1. Teacher
I think of all my dream jobs, this is the one that's most likely to happen. I'm about a year of school and a semester of student teaching away from being a licensed English teacher in Michigan. Part of me really wants to finish it, and I think that someday I will. My friend, Claire, is well on her way to getting a teaching job here in MI, which as most of you well know, that's a hard thing to do here right now. I occasionally helped Claire grade her student's papers this past semester and I loved helping her. I loved getting out a colored pen and correcting sentences and checking answers. I loved correcting spelling mistakes and telling students "Great Job!" with a smiley face. Hearing Claire talk about her lesson plans and the books they're reading was so inspiring to me, and she tried her hardest to get me to go back to school in the fall. (Sorry Claire, not this year!)
But rest assured, someday I will be a teacher, and I'll be one of the many underpaid, under-appreciated, tired, over-worked teachers who are treated like dirt by the government (did you know they don't even teach penmanship anymore? WTF!?! oh, and how about how baseball players get millions of dollars a year while those in charge of EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN get somewhere around the poverty line? yeah, I could go on...) But I'll love helping students read literature and love it. I had some truly inspiring English teachers throughout school, I hope to be that person for even one kid someday.

2. Singer
Ok, so I know this is silly. I'm super shy, not very outgoing, and have terrible stage fright. Not to mention the fact that I can't sing. But boy do I belt it out in my car when I'm by myself! (Seriously, I'm friggin' Adele sometimes) But honestly, I'm terribly jealous of people who have true musical ability. I can't play any instruments or anything either. I listen to singers like Adele, like Lady Gaga (say what you will about her outfits, that chick can SING), like Joy Williams (The Civil Wars) and I'm just so emotionally moved by their voices. I can feel the gut-wrenching love or sorrow in their voices. I wish I could convey that through music. It blows my mind though how some people can get famous (*ahem* Britney Spears, Ke$ha, etc...*ahem*) when they have zero talent and then people who can genuinely sing get brushed aside for one reason or another. It's so weird that people like to listen to garbage rather than music that will send emotion into your soul.

3. Astronaut
I would LOVE to travel to space. Seriously, if Battlestar Galactica was real, I'd want that to be my life. How totally badass would it be to fly through space in a SPACESHIP?!? C'mon, you know that sounds awesome. I do love all things outer space (have you seen my tattoos?), and I do wish that I was better at science in general, and if I was, I might have gone that direction. But you have to be good at math too, and well, I'm not really into numbers, I'm more of a words kind-of-gal. But I wish I was out there discovering new planets and stars. I wish I had the stomach to break our atmosphere and fly into space and see the Earth from the moon. Can you imagine how incredible that would be? OH! And that scene in the movie Sunshine where the crew is watching Mercury pass in front of the sun, oh man, that made me tear up when I saw it in the theater. You can watch that particular scene here or it looks like this mostly, but the video shows the emotion better, so go watch it:
4. Full-Time Painter
This one might be feasible at some point as well, but I'll put it under my dream jobs for now. As many of you know, I have a small painting business called Clever Characters and basically I paint personalized name art for kids rooms. I also do what I call "family art" which is basically the family name along with whatever design the family wants on it. I've been doing it for about 2 years now and really enjoy it. It's fun to look back at my first few paintings and see just how awful I used to be and just how far I've come. Believe me, I've still got A LOT of learning to do, but I'm enjoying the process so much. And it means THE WORLD to me when I paint something for someone and they are so happy with it and thank me and it just gives me fuzzy feelings. I love doing it, so I hope one day, when we've got all our babies born and are settled, that I can focus my time on painting and raising babies. :)

5. Nurse
As much as I hate-loathe-despise hospitals and anything medical-related in general, I do wish that I didn't. I wish I could be in there, saving lives, making people feel better. But in reality, this is one dream job that will NEVER happen because just walking into a hospital raises my blood pressure and makes me sweat. Oh well. But I do want to say that I am very grateful for all the men and women who can handle it so well and love their job. I would love to be a midwife mostly, but since fainting at the birth of my best friend, Mikaela's, baby boy, well, I just don't think it's for me.

So tell me, friends, what are your dream jobs?