My life is going to be not perfect, but kind of perfect.

Sorry for the blog hiatus. But as we tell the kids, no, I do not want to hear your excuse. Let's move on.

Today in social studies we did an activity which I promise was relevant to our curriculum but essentially became the classic childhood writing prompt, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Here, my friends, is the future of our nation. The career goals of the 16 kids whose papers I have:

Girls:

Gymnast

Fashion designer

Fashion designer

President

Teacher

Dance teacher

Actress

Chemist

Boys:

Athlete

Soldier

Athlete

Chemist

Athlete

Athlete 

Athlete

Rapper (revised after I told him "millionaire" is not a job)

The fashion designers both actually said "teen fashion designer" (I refuse to google this but I assume that's some sort of Nickelodeon show. Whenever the kids all have some common background knowledge we didn't teach them, it's from a Nickelodeon show). I don't understand how your job when you grow up can involve being a teen, but then there's a lot of things I don't understand in my students' responses.

[Edit: You know when you realize something in your sleep? I realized in my sleep that "teen fashion designer" probably means designing fashion FOR teens, not designing fashion AS a teen. Why am I thinking about this in my sleep???]

For example, one of those fashion designers might have actually meant human-trafficker:

"My money I will have is only from work and not needed for clothes, only food and shoes. My job is going to affect my family because I will be selling them after I make them."

Other choice quotes:

"I will become an inventor. I will live in a mansion with my mom and own 4 cars; 2 for my mom and 2 for me. I will have an Audi LMS Ultra, Pagani Zonda Cinque, and my mom will have a Ford F-150 Raptor, and a Nissan 3502. I will make video games, cars, life story chapter books, etc."

"When I'm older I will be a rapper. I'm going to do that by rapping so that I can have a mansion and have money for my 6 babies."

Side-note: Before they began writing we were talking about how your lifestyle is related to your job. I gave the example of, if you want to be a police officer, you can't also claim you'll live in a mansion because police officers don't live in mansions. The kids' solution was to choose careers that could plausibly allow you to live in a mansion. Well-played.

The future president drew a comic of herself, at age 44, as the "First Black Woman President." This is what the FBWP says in her speech bubble: "The war in Aghanistan [sic.] that stopped 10 years ago is over. All the drugs gone made America's problems better." I told you these kids were political!

The future chemist (male) says: "I will give to charity, because I like poor people. Some people might hate them but they are just unfortunate people. I will be able to afford many things when I find the cure to 

cancer." We'll be conferencing on this one.

And, here's your tender moment of the day, and my favorite for obvious reasons -- the future teacher says: "My life is going to be not perfect, but kind of perfect.... I'll be a good person and a teacher."

May we all be so lucky.