On Friday, Rich and I took my parents on a bit of a field trip to Richmond. As we were leaving the neighborhood, we passed a street sweeper and my father wistfully said, "maybe that's a job I could do." At 68, he's constantly looking for some sort of job that he could do that would keep him busy and bring in a few extra dollars. Sitting in the car, it made me wonder if he ever had his ideal job his whole life and if he even knows that that job would be. My mother and I believe that the jobs he claims he should have had when he was younger he would have hated. I also marveled that a job like driving the street sweeper is one of those jobs that would be great to tell little kids about. What 2nd grader wouldn't want that job?

Pondering the dreams of childhood (or adulthood) with the reality of earning a paycheck reminds me of the 1999 Monster.com commercial:

Which brings me to this month's Living Out Loud project. What did you want to be when you "grew up"? Did you get that job or become that person? Do you think that's rare or not? Has your idea of what you want to be when you "grow up" changed since you were a kid and how? Do you think you'll ever be that person? How important is it to you? How would you explain to a kid about choosing what to be when he or she grows up and attaining that goal?

Details include:

• Write something personal about yourself using the previous paragraphs as a guideline. Do not feel that you have to address each question above. The spirit of this project is to share something about yourself; I'm just throwing out ideas.

• Once you have completed your entry and posted it, please email me the link at genie [at] inabottle [dot] org.

• If you do not have a blog to host your story, you can email me the story directly and I will add it here as a guest post giving you credit. The more the merrier!

• The due date for entries is Sunday, November 1st (the first Sunday of the month) at 5pm Eastern.

• Once I have collected all the entries, I will post a wrap-up to list them all and announce a winner. The winner will receive some sort of prize to be determined but all participants will receive fame and glory and a link on our Living Out Loud blogroll.

I'm probably going to write my entry sooner rather than later since at some point between now and when this is due, I will have birthed a person (God willin' and the creek don't rise). Just remember to send me an email to your own entry, and we should be good to go.

Looking forward to reading them all!