I think I’ll start at the beginning.

With the goal of finding my next ‘passion’ in life (my ‘métier‘), I’m going to explore all of the things I loved doing when I was a child. Back when everything I did was solely for the pleasure it brought me. There were no external pressures to spend time doing things I didn’t want to and nobody influencing my choices (at least not beyond normally parenting).

Like most young children, I tried my hand at LOTS of different hobbies and sports (skating, swimming, rollerblading, dancing, kayaking…….) before settling in on a few that I really enjoyed or felt good at. So here is the list of things I loved doing as a child:

1. Reading – I was a total bookworm as a child but as I’ve gotten older I’ve let other things get in the way of my reading time (TV, internet surfing). I plan to change that. Childhood career dream: Author

2. Crafts – I LOVED crafts and still do. I’m not particularly ‘crafty’ but I love sitting and doing little projects with my children. I’ll share some of these with you AND plan to work on a few “adult” crafts too.  Childhood career dream: Artist

3. Being active/outdoorsy – I have put myself at the bottom of my “to do” list for 6 years now (the age of my oldest child).  Now I want to find the athlete inside of me again. Childhood career dream: Olympic Skier. This dream only faded away a few years ago even though I have only skied twice in the past 8 years.

4. Wave jumping – Not sure how I could possibly segway wave jumping into my new metier but if I’m going to stay true to my goal and commit to revisiting all the things I loved doing as a child then I would be remiss not to include it here. I spent HOURS jumping in the waves at the beach as a child. It is one of my happiest memories from my childhood. Childhood career dream: beach bum with various ‘seasonal’ jobs requiring me to chase the sun around the globe.

5. Movies – I’ve always loved movies. Not just for their stories but for what they’ve done for me over the years. Movies provided the backdrop for almost every single “first date” I ever went on. Movies were also my therapy of choice when my work-life balance was grossly out of whack. Before I settled into the reality of “working” [my first year out of University and living on my own in a new (big) city], I went to a movie MANY times a week to escape thinking (stessing!) about work at night. Being able to escape reality (chemical free)  is a very powerful drug, for my brain anyhow. Childhood career dream: Famous actress (but doesn’t everyone have this dream at some point?).

6. Travel – I can thank my parents for this one. They took my siblings and I everywhere they went. I’ve been fortunate to see many parts of our world already (through work and pleasure) and look forward to many more adventures. Childhood career dream: National Geographic writer/photographer…then later, Travel Host (a la Ian Wright caliber).

Special mention: I remember playing the board game CLUE maaaaaaaany times as a child. Perhaps is this where my desire to become a criminologist came from :)

I will tackle this list one-by-one and see if pursuing these old interests guide me to my new passion in life. Stay tuned…..