A few years ago I came across a worksheet I’d completed in early elementary school – probably first grade. One of the questions asked was “what do you want to be when you grow up?” My answer was “a nun”.

Things didn’t work out exactly as I planned. I didn’t become a nun after all. Instead, I got a PhD in Applied Developmental Psychology and have worked in the field of research for many years.

When I asked my 2 boys a couple of years ago, when they were 3 and 4, what they want to be when they grow up, my older son said “ a doctor who takes care of older people”. He received a lot of praise, which fueled this goal (until this year when he turned 6 and decided to tweak his goal and become a doctor who takes care of bugs). We now have a slew of ants, beetles and caterpillars in plastic containers being “cured” of their ailments.

My younger son told everyone he also wants to be a doctor. Apparently he loved basking in the praise too. However, one day he confided to me that he in fact wants to be a Jungle Man. He didn’t want me to tell anyone because he was afraid they would think it was funny. So, he and I talked all about his becoming a Jungle Man, and during the course of our conversations, he wrote a book about it. You can find it on

http://www.imagineage.com/book/IWantToLiveInTheJungle.html

and

http://whenigrowupiwanttoliveinthejungle.wordpress.com/about/

I’m looking forward to seeing what they do when they grow up.