When I grow up…

Most of us have utter the phrase, “when I grow up, I wanna be…..”  As kids we look forward to becoming something we imagine is exciting and unique – a super hero, a fireman, a sports professional, a ballerina, etc.  My four year old grandson wants to be a pirate.  Thinking about that, I realize that I do know some adults who have become pirates, they just aren’t swashbuckling on a ship.

Nick has always loved flying on airplanes.  I think if he had his choice of occupations, he would be a commercial pilot like his older brother Ryan.  Nick chooses to be a pilot on Halloween.  That is the day we get to dress up and we can be something else for a while.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an Olympic athlete.  I was working towards that goal.  I didn’t realize when I quit training what I actually had accomplished.  Oh, I hadn’t competed in the Olympics.  I wasn’t on that world stage, but the other part I had achieved.  I experienced the hours and hours, and years and years, of dedicated focused training to meet the incremental goals that are necessary while working toward the big goal.  I had learned self discipline, goal setting, how to pick myself up after falling (literally!), how to step back into training after a perceived failure.  These things turned out to be incredible life lessons that have shaped me.  So although I never got athlete credentials for the Olympics, I did develop an Olympic level character.

As a young mother of 4 kids, my mentors were women of great accomplishment.  They were kind in the face of conflict, focused in the face of stressful schedules, forgiving in the face of hurt, hopeful in the face of anguish.  I learned a lot as I modeled my behavior after them.  I watched them, I wanted to be like them.  I believe that over these decades I have.

So my questions today is, what do you want to be when you grow up, can you dress up like that today and try it out?

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Announcing that I have finished a book with the working title of “The Fairy Fort.” I am currently pitching it to publishers. Keep checking back to watch the progress of my newest novel.

Here is a quick glimpse of the story.

Sarah Doherty is an 18-year-old living in rural Ireland at the tail end of the Great War. Plagued by severe epilepsy, she is protected by her parents and lives a sheltered, secluded, lonely life. The Fae, local Irish fairies, interfere with her life. She falls forward a century in time through the local fairy fort of standing stones. She had a seizure in 1918 and woke up in 2020. The 21st century world includes life-saving prescriptions, physical comforts and the independence and freedom she seeks. The locals are welcoming and Andy Mclaughlin, a handsome young historian, is intriguing. She doesn’t want to return home.

Then a letter arrives from Boston divulging the story of Sarah and Andy’s lives that are deeply entwined in the previous century. They are not yet in love but as they seek to verify the letter through online resources, they feel a growing obligation to their unborn family and to each other. What would happen to their posterity living in Boston if they don’t return to 1918? Even if they do make it back, her parents can never know what happened to her or that would change everything.

This Young Adult time-travel romance explores the question: Do we have the freedom to make choices or is free will an elaborate illusion?

This is my third book. I love reading time travel romances. I am an advocate for epilepsy awareness because my 43-year-old son has intractable epilepsy. As a genealogist specializing in Irish research, I live part of the year in the village where the story is based. I wrote the book to help young adults understand that difficult situations can change your life. Sometimes miraculously.