My favorite question to ask older people when I was younger, was: “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
First, they giggled or looked at me funny, but then they thought about it and they truly answered.
I was always around old people as a young person, I realize… I just loved their company, especially my grandparents.
I just loved to be with them, to ask them things or hear their stories. I liked to go visit old people in my village and ask them things, make them smile. They gave me answers about all kind of things.
When I went to high school, in the city of Jerusalem, my favorite hiding place was with the older guy in the library.
He used to tell me: “What are you spending your time with an old dude like me, go play with your friends.”
Still, he liked my company and he also answered my questions, what do you want to be when you grow up?
I learned a lot, I learned that aspiration never stops. I realized that how old you are doesn’t change the spark in your spirit and its wish to grow, expand, play, explore, discover and create.
Sometimes people will say, “I’m already grown up” but then they realize that is not really true…
Sometimes they say, “I want to be free or see my grandchildren grow up.”
Sometimes they name a profession they dreamed of pursuing when they were younger.
Sometimes they will say, “I don’t want to grow up,” and sometimes they will simply say, “I don’t know.”
Once I met a lovely older lady, she was in her eighties and enjoying the class of sculpture portraits and working with clay, and I was the model.
We talked during the break. She was a Jewish lady in Amsterdam. I realized, of course, that she survived the war. I asked her jokingly, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
She looked at me and said slightly angry: “I always wanted to study physics as a young person. I knew that that’s what I wanted. I wanted higher education and to study physics, but my father didn’t let me”.
I was amazed to see that this wonderful 82-year-olds strongest memory was being prevented from studying what she wanted.
She didn’t tell me about the war, or about life after the war. It was not building a family. It was not how she eventually become a respected teacher and scientist.
It was the fact that her aspiration, her soul vision for her life, was not accepted, not allowed, not recognized.
She could not be what she wanted to be when she grew up without the permission of her father.
That left a strong impression on me, so it’s never too late to ask ourselves, “What do I want to BE when I grow up?
Ask yourself,
Did it change over the last 20 years?
Did it grow?
Did it expand?
Did something happen that changed completely the answer to this question?
And if you can see a new vision, how does it feel?
What does it look like? What does it taste like?
How does it feel?
WRITE IT DOWN OR JUST DRAW A SYMBLE… Your Subconscious mind will love it!
GALITTA
P.S.
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Join for Free my 21-day Happiness Challenge.
