Looking Back at My Childhood Dreams and Seeing the Path Clearly Now

I think I am around the age of 4 or 5 here. I loved the Smurfs. This was at a lake in the Adirondacks.

Today is the 18th day of The Ultimate Blog Challenge. Out of the 18 days I have missed three. I am doing my best to finish up the rest of this challenge without missing another day. I love how this challenge inspires me to show up and share. It is also fun reading the blogs of other participants. I learn so much each time!

Today's blog prompt was about childhood dreams. It got me thinking about mine. I didn't become those things, but what I realized this morning is that they held clues to who I would become.

Most kids are asked at some point "what do you want to be when you grow up?" The first answer I remember having for this was a veterinarian. I was about the age that is shown in this picture. I loved animals! I had two cats at the time (Purr Purr and Precious). I wanted to be able to learn how to help them and other people's pets. Eventually when I realized there was surgeries involved and that vets sometimes have to put animals down, that ended that dream.

Throughout my childhood and teen years I was obsessed with looking at my moms cookbooks and magazines with recipes. I also loved watching cooking shows. Before the Food Network was around, I remember watching cooking shows with my mom I think on PBS. When I was in highs school and the Food Network was out, we would spend hours together watching it. I was also a kid with a VERY big imagination! I was always making various mud and leaf concoctions or soap concoctions in the bathtub. I remember talking while making these recipes, as if I was showing some audience.

Around 3rd grade I seem to recall wanting to be a teacher. I would place school with the kids in my neighborhood or with my cats and stuffed animals. I remember when being asked around this age what I wanted to be when I grew up , I would say a teacher.

When I started high school I thought I wanted to be a Zoologist. In 9th grade I briefly joined this career program at the Zoo Syracuse, NY (my hometown) for aspiring Zoologists. I am not sure what lead to me dropping out of it. My mom didn't drive and my dad worked evenings. It required us to take the bus across the city to get there. My dad would then pick us up after he was done with work. My mom didn't want me to travel alone at night at that age. I'm guessing it became too much for us to do after awhile. My interest in animals didn't stop there. My senior year in high school, I took a Zoology class. I also took one in my first semester of college.

When I was in the 10th grade it was during the mid 90's alternative/grunge era of music. I was obsessed with MTV! This is when MTV was actually good and played music. Life was difficult at home, so I would find myself escaping into music and watching music videos. I wanted to be a part of that world soooo soooo much! That was when my dream of becoming a music video director was born. I decided to go to college for TV and Radio. When I was in the middle of college, my dream for music video directing dwindled. I had briefly minored in film and realized it was not for me. I loved the creative aspects of music videos, but realized it was a difficult career choice. After college, I started my career in news. I did camera, floor directing, audio, teleprompter, and master control. After a few years of that, I transitioned to the world of traffic (the process of getting commercials on the air).

I never felt fully satisfied working in TV. Like there was something more for me to do. When I was a Station Operations Manager, part of my job responsibilities was to speak about careers in television. I would get invited to speak at local colleges. I loved connecting with students and sharing with them useful knowledge I had learned from my experiences. I then would regularly mentor students. I realized I wanted to do this type of work.

In 2016 I started a 10 month program for a coaching certification. Not long after receiving my certification, there were some restructuring where I worked. I was laid off and a month later was hired at a local non-profit as a Career Coach and Adult Education Instructor. This job allowed me to practice my coaching skills and develop my skills as an instructor. I had also formed my LLC and was trying to figure out my niche. I was struggling to getting my business to being profitable and needed to bring in more income. After and year and a half at the non-profit, I went back into the TV world doing traffic. This allowed me to release the financial pressure on my business, so I could figure out the direction for it.

So, how does this all connect to the now? Well I became a vegan in 2017 (April, 29th to be exact). This connects to my values around loving animals. I want to share useful knowledge with others and teach what I know. My mission is also around saving animals by inspiring others to adopt a vegan lifestyle. I created the platform The Confident Vegan so I could do all of that. I create content for two YouTube channels (The Confident Vegan and That Vegan Morning Show). Some of the content I create is recipe videos. I am working on creating more on TikTok and Instagram. The technology at the time I was in highs school is not what we have today. We have entire studios in our phones and computers.

I now get to help animals, cook, create, and teach. My childhood and adolescent dreams were showing me breadcrumbs of a bigger future vision.

How have your childhood dreams shown up in your life as an adult? Let me know in the comments.

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Jennifer Shlomovich is a Plant-Powered Lifestyle-Educator on a mission to help others improve their health by eating more plants.. As the only vegan in her household, she knows firsthand how challenging it can be to stay true to your values when the people around you aren’t on the same path. For years, she put everyone else’s needs ahead of her own, but through her journey, she discovered the power of setting boundaries, living by her values, and confidently prioritizing her well-being. On her YouTube channel, The Confident Vegan, she shares inspiring interviews, practical tips, and empowering conversations about what it really means to live in alignment with your values. She is also the co-host of That Vegan Morning Show with Kimberly Winters of the Did You Bring The Hummus podcast.