Girl on the Brink: Surviving Desperate Times with Desperate Measures

While walking to my temp job, I passed a man in overhauls blowing leaves (n0, not with his lips) into the street along Wisconsin Avenue.

Almost immediately, I had a pop thought. When he attended kindergarten and his teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, do you think he said, “I know. I can’t wait to be a maintenance man for the city of Bethesda.”

Yeah, right. He probably told the teacher he wanted to be a doctor but secretly wished he’d be a part of a Mexican drug cartel and become über rich.

Somebody called him José, so I figured he had once lived south of the border, or maybe he was from Texas.

In any case, José wasn’t whistling Dixie as he powered up his leaf blower to push maple leaves stuck in between clumps of curbside golden mums.

He reminded me of the foreign-blood women you see at the hair salon. They sweep people’s ratty hair off the floor before they ask you if you’d like anything to drink. I bet their childhood dreams of living the American Dream didn’t include working at the Hair Cuttery.

I also doubt that the immigrant who was hired as a parking lot ticket taker at Whole Foods feels his employment was a moment of triumph.

For better or worse, I think our open-minded dreams of childhood married reality. According to the Workopolis “When I Grow Up” poll, 82 per cent of Canadian adults aren’t doing what they dreamt of when they were younger. Why should it be any different for Americans?

The top five jobs kids mentioned: teacher (surprised me), police officer (they’ll learn), doctor (a mother’s influence) , musician/singer (watching too much American Idol), and veterinarian, firefighter, or sports player (three-way tie).

Some of the jobs that didn’t make the top five but which would have earned my vote included Barbie; a fairy, real one that can fly; dirt bike rider and pizza maker (Isn’t Domino’s always hiring?).

As I rethink my American Dream, I’m going to divorce myself from reality and go back to being a kid.