And what do you want to be when you grow up, Little Girl?

    Back in the day, as far as I was aware, there were only 3 possible professions for a girl:  Secretary, Nurse, or Teacher.  The girls who wanted to be secretaries didn't want to go to college.  They were  tired of school and wanted to get jobs and to get on with their lives.  I always aspired to go to college, so I ruled that choice out.  One of my first school friends had a sister who worked as a nurse, so she wanted to follow in her path.  As soon as it was explained to me  what a bedpan was, that career was completely out of consideration.  That left teaching, which was an easy choice anyway.  I'd always loved school, everything from the books to the desks to the order of the classroom. A little later, I read "Good Morning, Miss Dove,"  and that added to the attraction.
    I did in fact become a teacher, though obtaining that goal was far more difficult than just answering the question of selecting a career.  That job ended and the question of what I wanted to be was answered instead by what I had been.  Life goes on, though, until it runs its course, and while life's options inevitably subside, its duties still remain, where the choices of youth surrender to the reality of age.
  MORAL:  Fate doesn't mind kicking you in the head.