I wanted to be a test pilot.

From late childhood to late teenage years, I wanted to be a test pilot more than anything else. Notwithstanding that I wore and still is wearing glasses, the idea to be in command of a machine and push it to its limits had its appeal to me. From time to time I would ponder some other occupation like doctor, soldier or explorer but for some reason I kept coming back to the pilot thing. Funny thing is I never flew on a plane until I was eighteen excluding the time which I could not remember when I flew as an infant. Flying on that plane from Newfoundland to Ottawa was a day of unending wonderment and to this day, flying is still quite a special thing with me.

But the test pilot dream was just a dream never fulfilled. I has stabs at other things in the first few years of university: political science, pre-med, chemistry. In fact, it was my brother who actually became the licensed pilot and it was my sister who became the doctor. As for me, I got a business degree which proved its worth in my brief retail management career . Then I received my technology diploma which has lead to a fulfilling career for the most part but not one I dreamt about when I was ten years.

So what would Madeleine dream of becoming when she grows up? A doctor? A ballet dancer? An actress? A pirate? Of course the jobs she will dream about will be the more glamorous ones that she will see on television and film. There are not too many television shows about environmental biologists these days. But I would encourage her to broaden her mind to see what people do in real life and never feel constricted in her choices. She may do many things at different stages of her life. I would teach her that if she works hard enough she may actually make her dreams come through.

Her imagination will be her guide. If she can not be a pirate in real life, then she can play one. I will let her dreams go unbounded. There is plenty of time for her to grow up and confront the real world.