Tabitha Oyewole

I read a book by Lila Empson and Jayce O’Neal titled “100 Answers to 100 Questions Every Graduate Should Know.”. It is one of the best books I’ve read this year and I’ve not gotten over it. The 62nd question is what I want to talk about; it says, “What did you want to be as a kid?”. That question really got me thinking about my desires as a kid and I laughed at most of them.

I was always indoors when I was little. My mom didn’t like it when kids jumped around or played with dirt so she trained us to stay indoors and play indoor games. I didn’t have many friends on the street; I can only recall two friends: Jire (I still have a crush on him, though I don’t remember what he looked like) and Tolu, one of my neighbors who left later. I guess that’s why I’m an introvert. LOL.

One of my favorite toys as a kid was a cooking kit my mom got for me. I think that was when my love for cooking started. I had an imaginary family where I played the role of a mother, and I prepared my family’s meal. As I grew, I started using my mom’s foodstuffs to cook what I thought was food, and she allowed me. So, one thing I wanted to be as a kid was a mother who cooked and took care of her kids.

I also wanted to be a fashion designer. I remember cutting papers to make dresses and tops. I enjoyed cutting papers and making different styles for my doll. My love for cooking and fashion design has actually gotten me so confused over the years. I’ve found it so difficult to choose one.

What else did I want to be as a kid?

Oh! I wanted to be a newscaster. I thought I had a very cool voice and intonation that would be awesome on the radio. I enjoyed reading from the newspaper to my dad and acting like I was on TV. I don’t know why I enjoyed doing this because I hated it when my dad made us listen to news at 8 instead of seeing a movie.

I definitely loved to write and I wanted to be a writer. I started by writing to my parents whenever I wanted to discuss something very crucial with them, like when I had dreams or when I wanted to make requests. My writing wasn’t good; there were many errors (I was a kid, duhhrr) but my parents encouraged me. I preferred and still prefer to write than to talk; I express myself better when I write. I also enjoyed reading. I spent most of my money on novels and magazines. There was a time my dad got tired of giving me money for novels. He told me to read the ones I had and I started crying. That was how much I loved to read. It is one of the reasons I’m broke today, I’ve decided not to buy books this year though, I’m going to take my dad’s advice from more than 10years ago and read the books I got before.

The most surprising of it all was that I wanted to be a pastor (don’t laugh, please; I’m the only one allowed to make fun of myself). What? A pastor? I can’t believe myself. So, when I was between 12 and 15 years old, I set up a church with some of my neighbors. We worshiped together after school and I had plans to expand our church by getting donations from our parents. I started with mine. I think my dad gave me some money; I don’t remember how much (my dad used to be so supportive and he encouraged me a lot). I really don’t know what happened to my teen ministry to date. I definitely don’t want to be a pastor or a pastor’s wife now.

I wanted to be a lot of things as a kid, but this is the little I can recall for now because I still want to be these things except a pastor. As a kid, I wanted to be a mother, a cook, a fashion designer, a writer, a reader, a newscaster (I still want to be on TV) and I wanted to do the things of God. That’s the only way I can describe the church I established. I wanted to please God and be of service to him, so I thought a church was what I needed to achieve that.

I think you should try this too and you can share in the comment section. What did you want to be as a kid? What were your desires as a kid? What game did you enjoy playing? How did you express yourself?… Knowing these things helps us define ourselves, review, and check our growth.

Thank you for reading!