#Introduceyourself- The story of a late bloomer
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Mrs McCormick asked.
"An astronaut!!" the boy behind me boldly boasted and within moments a choir of prepubescent boys leapt out of their seats and sung in perfect discord "Me too, me too, I also want to be an astronaut!" their faces beaming with excitement.
This elation eventually exploded into pandemonium and what was once a quiet classroom became an intergalactic highway for supersonic rocket ships en route to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and beyond. Fueled by their imagination and the belief that anything is possible the boys zipped and zoomed throughout the universe until a big bang on Mrs McCormick's desk accompanied by the words, "That's enough boys!" brought them back down to earth and subsequently back to their seats.
In the aftermath, Mrs McCormick noticed, only one boy did not answer the call to space travel. With caring concern laced in her voice she enquired, "Wilson, what do you want to be?"
I humbly mumbled, "I don't know" but in the back of my mind I proclaimed, "anything but an astronaut!"
“He is a bit different,” is what they would say when they spoke about me and yes, I was different.
Fast forward 14 years later a 22-year-old Zimbabwean boy/man, an alien in a foreign land (South Africa) who still has no idea what he wants to be wears the guise of a junior tax consultant by day and that of a masters student in economics by night. I am still somewhat very 'different' from peers but I may have become more open to the idea of manning an interstellar vehicle to interrogate the endless mysteries of the cosmos.
Why the change of heart?
I saw an actual spaceship. The monument stood tall at the heart of the air and space museum in Washington, D.C. when I first laid eyes on it last year. Henceforth, the power of imagination which had once been dormant in my childhood for the sake of individuality had been awakened! I became just like the other little boys in Mrs McCormick's classroom, I was ready to launch into infinity merely because it was in touching distance.
My view of the world today is based on the things that I have seen and the places that I have been. Hello, steemians my name is Wilson, a millennial who is more than willing to share his experiences and thoughts to create constructive conversation and contribute positively, even in the smallest way to all who engage with my posts.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Here's a couple snaps from my day at the museum:
