The first time I brought my daughter to Take Your Child to Work Day, she surprised me with her career interest in the copy machine.  When she grew up she would spend her days running big print jobs.  If there was any specialized stapling or spiral binding involved, all the better.

Don’t get me wrong, making copies is a worthy job. I respect it and anyone who does it. But seriously. The kid was 10. Shouldn’t she be dreaming of something beyond collating? Rock star?  Zookeeper?  Dessert taster at Disney World?

Like any mother faced with a comment she doesn’t understand, I tried to get a different one. “Honey, that’s a great job and you’d be great at it.  I’m just wondering, if you could do any job, not just a job you saw today, but any job at all, wouldn’t you rather, I don’t know, be an astronaut? You could walk on the moon!”

Her reaction was sheer terror.  There was no way she would ever want to be an astronaut, because if she pressed the wrong button, all the air would go out of the space shuttle, and everyone would die!

Ah-ha.  She was dreaming small because the world was still so much bigger than she was.  I tried to explain that, in any endeavor, they don’t give you the risk-it-all button until you’ve studied, trained, practiced, and are ready to use it. 

More importantly, it’s as fun as it is scary to take risks. The higher the stakes, the more exhilarating the ride. Like making a ski run, or having your jokes go over when speaking in public.

I don’t know whether my daughter will go on to run a copier, a company, or a vacuum cleaner. It won’t matter. As long as she chooses from all the possibilities.