When I was young, my dad asked what I was thinking of becoming when I grew up. I said I wanted to be a librarian. I liked reading books very much, and thought I’d be good at leading story hour.
My Dad said if I wanted to be a librarian, I should be a librarian on a space station. This would have been the very early days of the shuttle program, and my dad had a book by a man who predicted we would soon have a space station near the moon. Space was where it was at, my dad said–I should specialize in something that would be needed–I should be part of the future.
In any case, I should reach for something higher than just being a librarian. And if the space thing didn’t work out, I should plan to leave our small town, and small thinking behind.