People always ask little kids what they want to be when they grow up.

Invariably, little kids want to be like someone they admire — one of their parents or a firefighter or a musician or a rodeo cowboy. I’ve rarely, if ever, heard a little kid express a desire to be someone who can’t put on the white hat of a hero at the end of the day.

Yet, oddly enough, as people age, that question disappears into the worries of adulthood — bills, relationships, and so on — instead of remaining a regular part of their thoughts.

For some people it could be that they have grown up to be what they dreamed of as a kid. For others, it could be that life got in the way of what they imagined for themselves.

Personally, I went through a myriad of ideas about what I wanted to be (some much less feasible than others) and was lucky enough to have parents who indulged the majority of those ideas. What I imagined myself becoming often changed dramatically as my interests changed or were refined.

I am not a resolution maker when it comes to the new year. Not because I don’t appreciate having goals, but because I prefer to think of goals as things that should be achieved and replaced with other aspirations throughout the course of a day, week, year, a lifetime.

This year, however, I found I wanted to think of resolutions in a different way. I wanted to think of them in terms of what I want to be when I grow up.

While I am not a young person anymore, I am hardly old and, to me, that makes it the perfect time to give real thought to the grander scheme of things. My hard-partying ways from college have faded quietly into memory and my tastes in things like literature, music, and films have settled into a recognizable pattern. The great changes in my behavior, personality, and preferences are, I think, behind me.

So, now is the time for me to draw on some of my sturdier personality traits and start thinking about becoming.

I am a great believer in what one is doing in the moment as being the thing they’re supposed to be doing. However, I am also a great believer in having a plan. Whether that is a plan for vacation or life, doesn’t matter, as long as there’s a plan.

For now, the plan is to continue to enjoy what I’m doing both professionally and personally while paying thoughtful attention to what I want to be when I grow up.

Maybe this is it. What a comforting thought.

Pam Robel is the paginator for The Columbia Basin Herald. In her spare time she doubles as a farmer’s daughter, writer, reader, and thoughtful pursuer of being a grown-up sooner or later.