“Chefs Do That” ...Wife, Mom, Government Assassin

Parents What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

One day you’re in the working world, experiencing the day to day hustle and bustle of corporate America. Some of you may have even been working on a college degree, in hopes of taking the next steps in fulfilling your childhood dreams. Frankly, we may have all been doing drastically different things before we had children. However, no matter what we were doing before, now we all have one thing in common, we are parents. I’m not sure what your experience has been, but I’m learning that no matter how much I plan my day hoping to set aside some time for myself, children have a strange way of tweaking those plans. Needless to say, waking up as a parent can truly be a shocking experience for those who enjoyed the day to day certainty their lives were once afforded.

Take today, I woke up thinking “Chef’s Do That.” I wasn’t just any chef, I was a knife throwing government assassin. The character Samantha Caine, played by Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight, is a school teacher with amnesia. In her previous life, she was a knife wielding, gun carrying assassin working for the United States government. When she finally starts to remember pieces of her previous life, she sets out on a journey to find out who she really is. At one point in the movie, she’s at home with her husband and daughter and suddenly an intruder busts through her front door, attacking everyone in the house in hopes of killing her. Suddenly her instincts kick in, and this mom turned amateur chef, murders the guy with her own hands. Her husband looks at her in horror, and she says “chefs do that.” It’s pretty clear that Samantha never really forgets who she was. As an assassin, Samantha only had her career. But now Samantha is married to a loving husband, with a beautiful daughter. Finally, she comes to a crossroads where she must decide what is really important. As in any great movie, she walks away from her career as an assassin to be with her family.

Unlike Samantha, most of us chose the life we are presently living. We didn’t get amnesia and wake up with a family. And our lives didn’t end when the movie was over. I love being a mom, but that is only a part of who I am. I remember wanting to be a nurse, a news reporter, and then a lawyer. Now I want to be a writer. I may not be a New York Times Bestseller, but I am determined to wake up each and every day, thinking “Chef’s Do That,” but instead of being armed with a knife, I’ll have my pen and paper in hand, working towards what I want to be when I grow up.

What do you want to be when you grow up?


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