Stick On Those Memories

So I saw a bumper sticker on my way to work this morning that, in big rainbow letters, stated “MY CAT WAS VOTED PET OF THE DAY AT ****** PET DAYCARE”.  I’m going to just come out and say it.  What the hell are these people thinking?  I understand the concept of moving to the GAYborhood and settling down with your Sig Oth.  I even get the concept of starting a happy family, which for the GAYbors who can’t/don’t want children usually this involves a cat or dog.  Let’s be honest though, even for the typical gay family this is taking it a little too far, why don’t you just dress the cat up, give it a backpack and enroll it into Catholic school?

END RANT

While we’re on the topic of neighbors and bumper stickers, let’s talk about my neighbor’s bumper sticker (which I absolutely adore).  It says “Remember what you wanted to be when you grew up” which got me to thinking.  When I think back to my earliest days, I wanted to be an archeologist.  I could think of nothing more exciting than unearthing things that haven’t been seen by human eyes in hundreds of thousands of years.  When I started getting into the world of History and Social Studies however, I realized that I, as a child, loathed all things historical, thus my dinosaur chasing days were numbered.  I quickly moved on to marine biology.  I was always a Discovery Channel®  shark week junkie, even in my pre-teen years.  Then, there was the traumatic jellyfish experience of my 14 year old self and that desire flew out the same open window as archeology.  After marine biology, there was no set of goals to become any one certain thing.  A doctor.  A lawyer.  I went through all of the normal phases, none of which included navigating gigantic ships using a nautical chart and spherical trigonometry.  I had never even heard of sextants or alidades, range finders or amplitudes.  Yet, here I am never staying in one place for any period of time, out to sea more often than on dry land.  When I think about that bumper sticker now and really wonder if I’ve turned out the way I wanted to, I think I have.  What do I really want from life?  I want to help people.  I want to be a good person, a good friend.  I want to love and be loved.  I want to give back to those who have given to me, and even to those who haven’t.  I want to be a turn the other cheek kind of person, but not to the extent to where I’m letting people walk all over me.  When I really take everything into account, I’m still “growing up”.  I’m on my way to being everything I’ve ever wanted to be: Myself.

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