What Lucy Wants to Be

After my recent, interesting (and predictably-odd) conversation with Ben about what he would like to be when he grows up, I took a deep breath and asked Lucy what she'd like to be.

“Time-traveler.” No hesitation. Lucy would like to be a time-traveler when she grows up.

“Will that be your job, or just something you’d like to do? Do you envision being paid to be a time-traveler?” I asked her.

“People will pay me to go into the future and come back and tell them what’s going to happen to them,” she said.

 “That’s great. But what if something bad happens to them in the future?"

She shrugged, completely unconcerned. “I’ll tell them.”

“Do you think they’ll still pay you if it’s bad news?”

She looked at me like I was a complete idiot and said, “They’ll pay me first, mom.” (The “you dumbass” was only implied.)

Next she said that if the whole time-traveler thing didn't work out, she’d like to be a gymnast who’s so good that even people who don’t know about gymnastics will know who she is.

Hmm. I guess I should sign her up for a gymnastics class.

Then we sat together in silence for a few minutes, holding hands and pondering her bright future… until she emerged from her introspection with a start, jumped up and quipped happily as she ran down the hall in search of Hope, “Or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!”

There was a lengthy pause while my brain tried to catch up with the leap hers had just made. Finally I recovered and called after her. “I’m sorry? Did you say you’d like to be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?”

“Yeah,” she shouted over her shoulder. "You know, like outside a store. Dancing around and stuff.”

Oh good. She has a back-up plan.

Whew.