No monkeys yet I'm afraid. I've got both the kids off school today with sore throats and raging temperatures - it'll be a day of calpol, dvds and lolling in PJs. As I lay listening to them breathing last night (it was a 3-in-the-bed night) I began to wonder what my life would have been like if I'd followed my childhood dream and become a vet. Would I be roaming the Yorkshire Dales in my mud-splattered landrover, overseeing the birth of calves and the worming of sheep, a kind of female James Herriot? Would I have a sturdy, farmer husband with a check shirt and big weathered-but-gentle hands and 2 ruddy-faced kids with lambs for pets? I've always enjoyed the company of animals, adopting stray cats and puppies along the way, rescuing injured hedgehogs and birds (the picture is of Berry the Blackbird who we adopted and cared for this summer). But if I had gone down the path to becoming a vet I'd have never met my husband and soul mate or had these wonderful children.
Instead of Veterinary college I headed off to Art college where H & I met aged 18. I'd just left home, got a bedsit with my best friend Lynelle and embarked on my adult life. H tells me he fell in love with me at first sight (flattery does get him everywhere!) and by the end of the first month we were going out together. We didn't realise at the time that it would grow into the love of a lifetime and that 15 years later, on the anniversary of our first date together, I'd be giving birth to our daughter.
I'm so glad that I didn't become a vet. It's interesting when you stop to think about how you came to where you are in life. Which decisions and choices set your feet on the path to arrive here and now. So here's a thought for the weekend - What would you be doing now if you'd followed your childhood dream? What's your story?