Now that I am a grown-up, I have less time to do the things I want to do, and spend more time doing what other people tell me to do. I always have to act proper and be on my "best behavior". I now realize that I had it so much better when I was a kid. When I was a kid, I only had school for six hours a day. Wow! And I had a long, two and a half month vacation every summer. I always had time to play. And Mommy and Daddy were always there to take care of me. What a life I had back then.
So now, if someone askes me what I want to be when I grow up, I know what my answer will be: a kid.
There were many times I felt I wanted to pursue a career as a musician or a writer; a career founded on expression rather than simply performing a task. Everyone around me told me either implicitly or, more often, directly, that I shouldn't consider that type of career because there was no guaruntee I would ever make money in those careers.
I listened to those people, and every day the chance of actually doing what I, at heart, really want to do grows slimmer. I now seem to be firmly set on the technical track. I didn't listen to my heart.
We each grow up once. We can either become what others want us to be or what we want to be. Take your life for yourself. Follow your heart, and live your life as your own.
One of my favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation is the one where Q offers a dying Picard a chance to go back and avoid a fight which nearly killed him when he was a youth. Having played it safe, Picard returned to the Enterprise to be a perfectly healthy ensign. He had never took the risks to stand out and become a captain. He pleaded for Q to give him another chance.
There is always a risk involved in trying to reach a goal. If you don't take that risk, you will never reach your goal. Take the risk, reach for your goals, and you will be pleasantly rewarded.