When I Grow Up

When I was young I was not sure what I wanted to be when I grew up. Did I want to be a cop? Did I want to be someone who was going to rescue people, a blogger, a stage hand, a chef? I was not sure. Just so many questions

“It is time to think about what you want to be when you grow up” my kindergartener teacher Ms.H said. A sense of panic came over me when she asked that. I was not sure what I wanted to be. She was throwing out ideas left and right at me. It was more so at the class but I could feel the panic setting in.

Finding what you want to be when you grow up can be super hard. I am not a fan of making your life’s work choice when you are 6. It is hard to think about when you are a little kid. I was hearing all sorts of jobs that I could be apart of. From being a chef to an astronaut. Little did I know that my plan was already set up for me.

When I was very little I loved to play with one of those fake kitchens. Making meals and just playing around with everything that was there. From the knobs and switches to the sticker on the microwave, pressing the buttons that I have seen my parents do hundreds of times before (only on the real microwave). Then when I was about 5 or 6, a friend of the family had decided to remodel their bathroom and gave the old vanity to me. This vanity was made of oak, and it came with everything that was needed for a little kid to start playing with more plastic food.

On my birthday I came down the stairs and saw this giant gift for me sitting in the kitchen. As a little one I had to know what that thing was. My mom looked at me and said “Not now Fuzz, it’s not time to open gifts”. How I hated that phrase, still do to this day. The torture of not ripping open the wrapping paper made it feel like that I was running in place. Trying to get to the gifts but can’t because of time.

When the time for gifts finally came I tore the wrapping paper and there it sat. Taller than me with my name on it “Fuzz’s Grill” and on the small medicine cabinet it was “Paws Sandwiches”. My parents explained that I now had my own restaurant and the buddies had a joint restaurant with me. It was Fuzz’s Grill with Paw’s Sandwiches on the side. Absolutely thrilled I started playing with it (thanking my parents too of course). Making burgers and sandwiches. Later when it was moved down stairs Mom helped me create a menu for it. It had burgers, fries, salads, BLTs, sandwiches and plenty of desert options. Along with a lot of drink options, from root beer, to water and everything in between. I loved those days, I would cook for my parents. Pretending to take their order and then going back and making it.

We did have a few moments that I will never forget. There was a time where I was short on bacon and I had to said “I ran out of bacon, but it will be right back” a joke that has recently resurfaced ( we ran out of bacon at one point), all because someone else was “eating” the bacon, or when I drop something on the floor I would pick it back up and say “I just vacuumed so it’s ok” (and yes as I sit here writing this I am completely embarrassed I am saying all this, trying to hold back laughter. Yet it’s funny and a good memory, so might as well tell it).

As I got older I moved away from the plastic stuff and on to the real foods. Before I got into high school I was cooking all sorts of different things in middle school under the watchful eye of my mom or dad. Even when I went to visit my grandma (who sadly passed on March 20th, the day after Somewhere in my Memory came out. I love and miss you Grandma.) I would help with thanksgiving lunch/dinner. I can recall a time when I was helping my aunt make food and she called me the potato master because I knew how to cook tater tots and all sorts of other things. I remember having to figure out how to place things around ovens vent because the top left burner could not be used when the oven was turned on. A strange thing for sure, but it is how the oven was built.

When I got to high school I took a class that was offered off site and it was by a local college. I sort of enjoyed that class. It was fun however I was not ready for the pressure that was soon to follow. It eventually became way to stressful and I was forced to backed out. I had other classes going on at the time and it was just chaos. Theatre was picking up, and the class load was picking up things seemed more overwhelming than they were supposed to be.

However it made me see that I had a love for the theatre and I could put more time into it. I fell in love with the lights the sound and everything in between. It got to the point that I wanted to do this for a living. I was fascinated by everything that was going on. I attended a theatre conference and took work shops that helped me get things going. I knew what DMX was (or had a basic understanding of it) I could understand the way that the lights worked. I wanted more of that. So what was the next thing that I did? I got an internship with a local theatre running their lights. I am still with that company and they have given me everything that I need to know in order to learn and then picking up more and more things along the way. I am glad that I found my love for the theatre, it is fun and creative which is what I was looking for.

So what do I want to be when I grow up? That question is still unknown but I have an idea of what I want to do.