The Illusion of Our Boxes

Better Question: What day do you want to live every day?

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a lawyer. With one exception: for a few years in middle school, I thought I wanted to be an interior designer.

It didn’t last. I returned to my original idea until my sophomore year of high school.

While it’s tempting to write this story as if I’d given great thought to either path, alas, that was not the case. I had no lawyers or interior designers in my family. In fact, I’m not sure I knew any lawyers in real life. I’m certain I didn’t know any interior designers.

But I felt I needed a good answer to the question, What do you want to be when you grow up?

So, I tried to find a good answer. I found law in the never-ending episodes of Law & Order. Interior design stemmed from my penchant for redesigning my room as a child (which I did quite a few times including one unfortunate version that rendered my room the equivalent of living inside a Pepto Bismol bottle).

It’s unsurprising that as adults we ask strangers, “What do you do?” right after we ask, “What’s …