This may not come as a total
surprise to everyone, but I wanted to be the first female to play in the NFL.
Just because I could. I didn’t think it was fair it was all guys getting to
play football. No one was going to stop me. I even got a football helmet for
Christmas one year when I was about 10 or so. I was so excited I put it on and
ran around in the back yard in my red velvet dress.
I didn’t realize at the time
there were female football teams. Even when I discovered that though, I didn’t
change my goal. At that point. Now I’m mature enough to know about locker rooms
and smells and how girls really don’t fit in an all-boys club. I also at some
point understood what a challenge it would be and my chances of actually making
it were slim to none.
I also wanted to join the United
State Marine Corps. Two people I looked up to who were part of this sharp,
elite team. I didn’t care about the grueling boot camp or any of the rest of
it. I heard horror stories about Parris Island. I just wanted to be a Marine.
My mom told me she was on board with it, as long as I joined as an officer. I
looked into Naval ROTC. I knew all the Corps ranks in order and could spout
them off at a moment’s notice. I was ready – semper fi baby! Sign me up! As I’ve
said over the years - I grew a brain and abandoned that dream. I don’t remember
why.
Then I decided I wanted to be a
English-Spanish translator for Coca-Cola. Their headquarters were in Atlanta
and I’d point out my office when we’d drive by the towering building. I saw
myself at the Olympics and in Madrid and at press conferences. I’d travel all
over but my base would be either Atlanta and / or Guatemala. I was on course
for this having had 3 years of Spanish under my belt with 2 more to go and
participating in the Spanish club. Then I took Anatomy & Physiology,
Biology and Chemistry. Spanish who?!?
To say I loved those three
classes is an understatement. We dissected a worm in Biology. I remember being
somewhat disappointed there was so little to see in a worm. My A & P
teacher told us about Gray’s Anatomy (the book) and we’d eventually maybe need
to open it one day in the future. So I bought it. Fascinated. No I didn’t
understand most of it, but it was still just amazing. I graduated high school
and went into college as a Biology major.
I loved dissecting whatever animal we
did (I think it was a fetal pig). Wow. I worked in the Chem lab washing beakers and loved just feeling the atmosphere; the quiet, orderly energy of it all.
That dream died when I got a job
and like so many before me, a paycheck was much more of a pull than going to
class every day. Life on life terms as they say. Then I got married and moved. Se la vie.
Would I change who I am or what I
do today? Absolutely not. But in my next life… ;)
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