"so, what are you planning on doing when you graduate?"

This has been a question I've been getting a lot of in the past year, and especially in the last few weeks when i've told people that i'm graduating from college in may. I always come up with something reletively solid to answer their question...the answer has changed radically since the "what do you want to be when you grow up?" question of our childhoods.
-in highschool it was, marine biologist---i like animals, i like marine animals, i like sea world---why not?---and then i took marine biology and learned more about plate techtonics and decided that wasn't for me, even though i still love sea world. -After that it was a high school psychologist.---and there's still something in me that has a passion for this---i just don't have a passion for school...and the history of psychology that i learned in my intro class my freshman year of college...---but i still have it in my heart to mentor jr. high and high school age girls
-After that i decided that maybe i could be a song writer. i've always been a writer and lover of poetry---and i used to play piano---so i figured if i picked that up again and put my poetry to music i could change lives with that----yeah...not so much....just "picking up" piano after a 10 year absence is harder than i thought...so that, and the fact, once again that i don't have a passion for people "making" me do things like they do in school doomed me to change majors---oh yeah, and being in choir for 2 more years didn't really fly either, since my singing voice isn't quite up to par---but i would still love to learn more piano and theory (bc oddly enough i loved music theory), and learn to play the guitar---because i love music deeply and think that lives can be affected through it
-now i'm a print/graphic communications major---the funnest part of that major is taking photography classes, and playing on computers--which has led me to what i now tell people i want to be---work for a magazine, and hopefully do photography---(meaning--- my dream job would be to travel around the world and capture the essence of a culture with the lens of a camera)---spending an extensive amount of time in Italy gave this passion to me---and this is what i've basically stuck by for the last year to 2 years---a record for me.

The Truth:
The true answer to this question is one that could go on and on, but for the sake of the person asking---i shorten it to the above mentioned---but brace yourself---here's what i want to do when i graduate
I want to:
-be a photographer
-be a world traveler
-be a painter
-write a book
-learn to cook--well
-be a musician
-be a band groupie (in a non-creepy/non-slutty way)
-live in new york city
-live in the mountains in colorado
-live in california
-live in a beach house in florida
-be in a movie
-be a psychologist (not by schooling, but in the wisdom sense)
-fall in love
-have a part in making the soundtrack to a movie (because often times--the music makes the movie---it's what evokes the most emotion)
-learn how to sing---well if possible (i realize that it's an actual talent you have to have--but some people can be trained? i don't know)
-start a foundation
-live missionally
-become unselfish enough to have kids
-love others as Christ did
-make a difference
-glorify God.

i don't feel like writing any more--but those are the main things--and if you made it all the way down this blog, i am truly impressed. seriously.

a friend said something to me last summer that has stuck with me in regards to all of this: he said "don't figure out what you want to do, figure out who you want to be, and the rest will fall into place"---wise words that i will probably always carry with me until i actually become "who i want to be"---but that's an ongoing, sanctifying process.

that's all for now--eventually i will actually post what's been going on in my life.
love you all more than words.

ps - i saw phil wickham at watermark church last night----AMAZING live. AMAZING.