Growing up as little ones, we all gave answers to the "what do you want to become in future?" question.
Uncle I want to become a pilot, mummy I want to become an engineer, daddy I want to become a banker, aunty I want to become a doctor, we all replied.
Lol, come to think of it, back then, the 'doctor, nurse, engineer, pilot and banker profession were the main professions kids gave answers to.
Nowadays, schools now organize career days for their pupils. Oh my, you should see these fine children dressed in the career costumes of their choice.
Various shades of beautiful kids dressed as doctors with their stethoscope on, lawyers with their wigs on, nurses with two different colours of pens in their chest pockets, dayummmm! Anyways, I didn't do career day during my time as a kid.
As adolescents, we all fantasized and dreamt of the number of houses and mansions we intend to build, the type of spouse we intend to marry, the number of kids we intend to have and the number of cars we would have.
Some of us did calculate and plan our ages. By the time I am twenty, I would have finished university, by twenty-two I would have gotten a good job, before twenty-five, I would have married, before thirty, I should have given birth to all my children, built a mansion and bought three cars. Hahaha, little did we know.
I gave I want to become a doctor answer. Reading Gifted Hands by Ben Carson and watching Korean medical movies fueled the passion.
Reminds me of when I got promoted to senior secondary school class, we were told to join any department of our choice.
There was the art department, commercial department or science department for each student to join. I chose the science department.
In fact, many students chose the science department compared to other departments although along the line, some couldn't cope being in the science department, they had to change to other departments.
On entering the senior secondary class, my parents bought me my school notebooks. I remember I wrote on the second pages of each new notebook statements or let me call them affirmations.
Take for example, I wrote I am a Whiz-Kid, signed it as Dr. Oyetunde Mayowa after. Some of the affirmations even had the signature of Prof. Oyetunde Mayowa.
When I got my lab coat, it fitted me perfectly! I would wear it around the house calling myself a doctor with so much enthusiasm.
If you've gone through my introductory post, you must have seen that I said that I chose to study microbiology, so how come the transition from being a doctor to being a microbiologist?
Oh well, I changed what I wanted to study when I was in senior secondary school two(SSS2).
I made myself understand my weaknesses and strengths. I knew I wasn't so good in Physics and Chemistry compared to Biology and since I came to the realization, this led to my decision to further into Biology my best science subject by choosing Microbiology.
As teens, most of us, if not all, anticipated to be eighteen, legal, free and an adult, little did we know. For some of us, we were still naive. For some, life has started happening to them.
Eighteen comes with a lot of life packages I must say. Having to decide what perfect dress to wear, who to be our friends, owning up to decisions start coming into reality.
During this age range, most of us are done with secondary school, we wrote JAMB in order to get into the university.
At the end, some got admission to study the course of their choice, some got admission but were not given the course of their choice, some had to wait another year(s) again to process their admission, some were not able to further their education. Well, I was graced to study my dream course in the university of my choice.
Now, some of us are twenty something, facing the reality of life, real adulthood. Some made and are still making lots of lemonades from the lemons life has been throwing at them.
For some, some of the dreams had when little didn't go as planned as they were dreamt of. For some, their dreams came into reality. I have heard people stories, I have my story too.
If I will be realistic, it is not easy. Some had changes in careers, dreams, life decisions and plans along the way. We or should I say some of us just want to be a better person and live comfortably in life.
During COVID-19 lock down, I wrote down a 7-year plan in a book, what I intend to achieve in seven years from then and yes, this has been guiding me ever since then.
If I am to answer the "what do I want to become?" question now, I will answer "I want to do life big".
To me, this response has a lot of 'becomings' in it. I want to be the best version of myself, I want to impact the world positively no matter the present position or the current situation I may find myself in.
Having to do life big will always give me reasons to always do more, aspire for more, refusing to be what is called 'normal', never settling to be a mediocre, knowing I can achieve whatsoever and whatsoever I want to do or find myself doing will always revolve around doing life big
All images are mine