A commercial came on my telly a short time ago, and asked me that question. It also proposed an answer: “space flight?”

So I’ve been sitting here, trying to conjure up some shreds of childhood dreams, but all I’ve come up with are a few flickers of nightmare. Ain’t that the pits?

But one thing I’m pretty sure I never dreamed of doing is space travel. I’ve never cared for cramped spaces, and space ain’t Star Trek. Between here and out there is a whole lot of nuthin. I can barely picture myself holding it together for a long monotonous cruise across one of earth’s oceans, let alone to the nearest habitable whatever.

So what did I want to be if and when I grew up, when I was, say, 8? I don’t know. That file is on a drive that is not accessible. I remember being 9 or 10 and listening to a lot of classical music. Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky. Maybe I dreamed of being a conductor.

“The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.”

– Eric Hoffer