This is a story that has been relayed to me from my daughter’s second grade class.
An uncle of a classmate of my daughter stood before their class and extolled the virtues of being a fighter pilot. He discussed many aspects of his job and fielded many questions – the many curious hands seemingly in the air at all times. He commented that, at their age, he didn’t know what he wanted to be, and then asked if any of them knew already what they wanted to be.
The pilot scanned the class and noticed my daughter’s hand raised. My daughter is usually one to take action like this. She has done many projects in class, including tri-fold poster sessions on human anatomy, and five element displays illustrating the phases of the moon, and so it was no surprise that she had an idea in place for her adult career.
The pilot called on her, and she replied, “I want to be a cosmologist!”
The pilot responded with, “So you like to do hair and nails up nice?” My daughter typically dresses herself with taste, unlike her father who typically pulls on yesterday’s jeans and grabs the next shirt in the closet. She also does her own hair and does a great job with it. At times, she has done hers, her mother’s, and even her little brother’s fingernails, but all this is irrelevant.
My daughter looked coolly at the pilot and replied, “Cosmology, not cosmetology.”