And I Want To Be...

At age two, when her three cousins declared to a not so small gathering of grandparents, aunties, uncles, and some neighbors, that they wanted to be a scientist, a doctor, and an engineer respectively, my daughter casually informed a stunned audience that she would like to be a patient.

Since then she has aspired to be many things; the lady who rings the bell at school, the postman who gets to cycle, the flag bearer at march past, the billboard painter who is allowed to get messy, and many other similar things.

I do not ask her often now. But every once in a while she does inform me about a change in ambition. It happened today too.

"Ma, I want to be the principal of St. Agnes School."

I was mighty impressed. At last my baby was growing up. I held her close and told her about my family, the school that my uncle owned, my uncles and aunts who were principals, my mom who won the Best Teacher Award in the small town she lived in, and lastly, I told her about myself—an ex-teacher.

She listened to every detail and seemed really pleased that she was keeping up some kind of family tradition, without really intending to. I was sure the decision had not been easy on her, because of the stark contrast to her previous ones, and was eager to know about the deciding factor that led her to make it. And why only St. Agnes?

“Why do you want to be principal of St. Agnes kanna?”

“Because she gets to go for picnics with the first standard, the second standard, the third standard, and the fourth standard mummy!”

I sat down for a while. And aspired to be what I always wanted to be. Ironically, it was patient too!