We Grew up and Dreamt Again – Childhood Ambitions Remade

A couple of surveys done in the States revealed that only 6% to 10% of adults achieve their childhood ambitions. Loss of interest, lack of opportunity, talent or resources are some of the reasons people cited.

Those numbers are likely to hit lower values here in Kenya, once the survey is adjusted for a number of differences in context.

Childhood is probably one of the most ambitious phases of life, or gullible should we say? You’re allowed to dream wild, and anything is within your reach.

The world is like a genie, ready to strike his magic wand and make anything possible. You only need to make a career wish.

“You want to be an astronaut? Well, yes you can be one, I bet you’d love to go to Mars, wouldn’t you?” (Yet we don’t even have a proper space program here)

The unmaking

Children are encouraged to dream big. Careers are presented to them like a variety of meals in a banquet. Whichever appeals the most to them becomes their dream career.

With time, as the innocence is slowly stripped off, reality strikes in – you have to make your own success.

That’s when some realize – kumbe you need to score that high to pursue your dream career.

Then the dream flies over the ceiling. It’s the unfortunate unmaking of childhood ambition.

Where it all goes wrong

So many people often go wrong when choosing careers; guided by prestigious tags rather than self awareness.

Career choice is a multi-faceted decision, whose weight a child (and sometimes a teenager) cannot begin to fathom.

Hence it cannot be left resting entirely on the gullibility and innocence of childhood.

One crucial facet of career choice is self awareness – understanding yourself, knowing your weaknesses, strengths, passions, styles, and interests. What’s the one thing that makes you feel alive?

Getting a satisfactory answer for these questions takes an intentional effort to discover oneself.

You must be willing to try out different things. The path to self awareness may often lead you to unpleasant places before you find the place you belong.

No one starts out with everything all figured out. Even the greatest scientist of all time, Albert Einstein, once worked as a mere patent clerk.

But he was very intent on following his passion, even as a clerk. In fact, the discovery for which he received the Nobel Prize was made while working at the patent office.

So many have been thrusted into careers far from what they hoped for. These are students who missed out on prestigious courses by a few points. The only option they had left was to go for the available alternatives.

Survival and success

For some at this point, the dreams take a rather unpleasant turn. The priority now becomes survival in the present condition. You grow to like the career, to make a living out of it. Passion is no longer an object worthy of consideration.

The ambition becomes chasing after success; top earnings, the best salary and privileges.

For others, when the heart chooses what it wants, there is no derailing it. They weather through their courses and later choose to follow their hearts.

Some become artists, the likes of the blossoming Laura Karwirwa, who studied food, nutrition and dietetics at Kenyatta University.

We restructured differently

My parting shot – we did not lose our dreams and ambitions, we only grew up and became aware of the world around us.

And so we restructured ourselves, we dreamt afresh. We all dreamt, but our dreams were so different. Some dreamt of survival, others of the heart.

Anyways, we should reconsider asking kids what they would want to be. Instead, we should ask them, “What are your interests right now?”

Thank goodness for the new competence based curriculum, it provides a better platform for self awareness.