When I grow up I wanna be ME!

So I got a new boss this week (officially). It's a good thing, and when I went to my first one-on-one meeting with a new supervisor in a new department, I was feelin' pretty good about life. We talked about my "career history" (is it really called that if you've only had one "real" job before this one?), my new role, etc., without any major drama.

And then he dropped this on me: "Tell me about your career goals. Where do you want to go from here?"

Um...what? When did I forget about that part of life? I was always so sure about stuff like that in high school and college - where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do, etc. But somewhere along the way in real life, I just forgot to think about it.

I realized all this and proceeded to panic. A meeting I was totally in control of 10 seconds earlier suddenly seemed completely overwhelming. I felt my face getting hot, I started sweating in a cold room, and my eyes started to fuzz over. Is that what a panic attack feels like? Job interviews, first dates, final exams...I have survived them all without such an incident, but when someone asks me what I want to be when I grow up I totally lose it. Great.

I gave some kind of answer - I tried to be honest about my ambitions changing and I told him where I thought I wanted to be someday...but it's hard to guess about something like that. I guess the real problem isn't that I don't have goals anymore - 'cause I totally do - just that they're focused somewhere else. The career ambition in me has mellowed with age.

Here's how I could have answered the question, but I'd hate to be irrelevant. I guess I could have at least proved that I DO have goals.

• I wanna be an author. Of books that have nothing to do with the industry I'm in. So you know...whatever help you could give me with that...
  
• I'd like to go back to South America and volunteer again. Will HR experience be beneficial?
• Mastery of the Spanish language. Latin day once a week?
• My secret dream is to arrange flowers for weddings. Do we have a cross-training program for that?
• Have a well-organized, stylish home. Can I use my training budget on feng shui?
• Develop chef-like abilities. Department discount at Sur La Table would be super.
  
• More literary knowledge. Surely reading the works of Dickens is a goal, yes?
  

I guess what I learned is that I really do work to live and not the other way around. But I could probably still use some more concrete goals in the career world. Something a little more specific than "pay the bills" but less ambitious than "run a major multi-million dollar corporation."

That's all. I'll be chewin' on it for a while...you know...since you asked.