You would think a thirteen year old would remember a lot from his childhood.  Right? After all, I’m still living my childhood.  But even with only thirteen years behind me, I don’t always remember much from my early school years.  That is, except the big moments that stick out for one reason or another.

I was in kindergarten.  I think we were having “career day” for whatever that was worth at that age.  Parents were invited and Mom came as always but Dad had to work.  The teacher went around the room asking each kid what they wanted to be when they grew up. Normal question, right?  Lots of people have asked me the same thing since then.

Most kids answered the typical jobs and the teacher responded with a “great” or “that’s a good job” or some other positive comment.  When it was my turn to answer, I proudly said, “I want to be everything!”

Immediately, the teacher said, “You can’t be everything.  You can only do one thing.  Just pick one.”

After a few rounds of “Yes I can,” and “No you can’t,” I burst into tears and ran to my mom sitting in the back of the room.  I honestly didn’t know what Mom thought then but apparently she was shocked at the teacher’s negative comment.  Mom knew I had big plans, whatever those were, so she thought my answer made perfect sense.

My teacher happened to be pretty old and was close to retirement.  Being a teacher all of her life, maybe she never had any other goals or things she wanted to do.  I guess lots of people in her time chose one job and stuck with it their whole life.  But telling me that I could only be one thing (especially in front of my whole class) didn’t set well with me, even at five years old.  I knew better. I could be anything I wanted to be or even try a lot of different things.

Note to teachers, parents, and other adults: Don’t tell a kid they are limited in what they can do or what they can be.

Note to self: Keep believing that I can do anything as long as I keep trying and remember to ignore the negative comments of others.