Childhood is over, now what? What do you want to be when you grow up?

Choosing a profession can be decisive for a life. But who said we can't change course?

'What do you want to be when you grow up?' It's a question that we've heard since childhood and that perhaps haunts us even as adults. After all, the answer generates a feeling of restlessness, considering that it can determine a whole life. Now, just look at the tremors felt when, after years in a profession, we are faced with the frustration of a wrong choice.

The problem is that knowing what to be when you grow up goes beyond understanding the exact moment when you grow up. Was it at the time of puberty? After the last day of high school? Or even after we reach the age of majority, in this case, 21 years old? The fact is that accurately delimiting when we grow up is not so easy.

That's because we are constantly growing and evolving. Who will say that a 60-year-old person, full of dreams, who is just learning to read or just out of college, is not growing? Time is relative, but one thing is for sure, we change and evolve all the time, so the fateful question 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' you will have a different answer at each new moment of life.

But, on the other hand, we know very well that this question is closely linked to career. In general, it is done when someone wants to find out what the interlocutor wants to pursue in their profession when they reach adulthood. And the answer once again is not very simple at all.

Between the environment and the will of the parents

As children, the question 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' is answered more by the parents than by the children themselves. Although without filters and barriers, the little ones are conditioned by the environment, sometimes built by an expectation of those responsible for them.

And it is clear that, many times, genres assume a determining role and even limiting about the profession to be followed. Girls are taught from an early age to be mothers and good wives. Just look at the toys created for this audience: pots, irons, dolls and so on.

Thus, home care becomes a priority, erasing the possibility of the desire to be a professional outside the domestic environment. As a woman, how many times in your childhood were you encouraged to be an astronaut, a renowned engineer, an airplane pilot, in short, to be more than a housewife? I believe few times.

Meanwhile, from the other corner of life, boys are taught to be providers, those able to occupy public spaces. Cars, planes, bicycles and skateboards are some of the toys that boys get in childhood so that they can occupy the environment outside that domestic environment.

Renowned astronauts, great engineers, qualified pilots and whatever else is within reach will grow. For them, the sky is not the limit. It is precisely the objective expectations of society, which include the expectations of parents, which corroborate the answer to the question 'what to be when you grow up?'.

But we also know that when children start to grow up and have contact with the world, they end up questioning such expectations and looking for an answer that makes more sense to them, a search that will perhaps last a lifetime.

Between vocational tests and career fairs

In the search for the ideal profession, we found different tools capable of helping us in an answer. Vocational tests are one of them.

Vocational tests are those tests applied by a psychologist to ascertain the professional tendency of a given individual. Today, we find hundreds of them on the internet, but I wonder if they are just a Buzzfeed quiz in the guise of a psychological form.

I don't remember passing a vocational test in high school. But I remember watching one university career fair which, today, I study my doctorate. The divisions of different courses and several students in uniform and with uncertainties are my strongest memories of that time.

I remember that in the Philosophy space, nothing fancy on the table, just a few scattered books, but enough to incite my curiosity. For me, love at first sight, for my mother, a disappointment that would take time to get over.

In the frustration of others' expectations, maybe we'll find ourselves

Another fresh memory was the frustration of my mother's expectations about which course I would take. She was sure her son would go to law school, it was our agreement until the end of his sophomore year of high school.

But, she didn't count that in the third year, in the 45 minutes of the second half, I would meet a philosophy professor who would completely change my life. Certainly, he studied hard for the discipline and aced all the tests. Already, under the covers, he lent me extra didactic Philosophy books.

a detour

I decided to deviate from the route and pursue a career. And it worked! I studied up to the master's degree in the area. But, as I said earlier, we are constantly growing, and when I thought I had grown as much as I could, I was wrong. I got to know the Literature course on my own and decided to change course. Today, I'm doing a doctorate in the area.

And how many like me, even after growing up, didn't make their own career transitions? How many have not frustrated their parents' expectations of the future and said: no, not for me? And yet, how many are still looking for what they will be when they grow up?

Unfortunately, for this question there is no cake recipe. Quite the contrary, the answer can only be constructed from a mind and body open to experiencing life's possibilities. If you need help, don't rule out seeing a psychologist and visiting career fairs. If you need answers, be sure to look within.

And remember that the answer can change depending on the paths you take and the day you are asked. If it's too difficult to answer today, leave it for tomorrow, maybe you need some time to get more clarity. Tomorrow, tomorrow ask me again: 'Gabriel, what do you want to be when you grow up?' And maybe I'll give you a totally different answer than I am today.

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