I Wanted to Be a Teacher

When I was very little, I wanted to be a lot of things.

I wanted to be married, so intensely that I begged my Mom, Dad and big brothers to pretend to be officiants on a daily basis, and walked solemnly toward them wrapped in the yellow afghan that my grandmother had knit me with my giant teddy bear by my side, on a daily basis.

I wanted to be a ventriloquist and a magician until I discovered that those paths needed intense practice and that it was difficult to make the dummy’s bottom jaw stay put rather than falling down its throat.