When we are young, people always ask us what we’re gonna be when we grow up, and I frankly miss that. At 44, I still wonder what adulthood might be like, all the while thinking that I’d make a great lead singer, bass player or possibly arc-welder. I don’t have the stamina to learn parkour these days, and being a cowboy would just be mean as hell to some poor horse, but in the right neighborhood I would make one heck of a ninja. In short, you’re never so old that you can’t imagine what your future would be like as a space pirrate, a flying nun or a princess of the sun, leading us to today’s aspirational query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) decrees that, for the purposes of today’s MS-QOTD, there can be no mixing of genres, no other options and no prevarication, asking: What would you most want to be if you had to grow up (and WHY): Superspy, Cowboy Or Rock Star?
5 Comments
Can I cheat a little and say “Space Cowboy”?
Soaring the wide open plains, wherever the solar winds may blow you…
As a bonus, zero gravity means less wear and tear on the horses.
Plus, who doesn’t want to be Mal Reynolds??!
Superspy, because then I could be all three.
No, I think I would most likely want to be a cowboy, but not an old west cowboy exactly. Like DamienR said, I’d like to be a “Space Cowboy” and explore the frontier of space and alien worlds. It has been one of my dreams since I was a child to be a colonist settling on some deep-space alien world, and no amount of sci-fi stories where colonists meet terrible ends has swayed me from that dream. In some ways, it would be similar to the old west as we settle on a new world without easy access to all the comforts and resources from home, but we would still have plenty of modern day conveniences that they didn’t have back then.
If I have to stay Earth bound, though, I’ll choose superspy. I actually have plenty of useful skills already, such as being able to read lips at a distance due to my hearing loss, an extremely high tolerance to drugs and anesthesia due to my years in treatments, and I can easily pop certain bones out of their sockets to escape from traps (though it does hurt like hell) since my growth was screwed up a bit due to the same treatments. I just need a bit of training and a spiffy gadget maker and I’ll be set.
I’d like to be a superspy. Why? Because I’d like to live a life of danger. Swinging in the Riviera one day, and layin’ in the Bombay alley the next day. All while seeing if that pretty face hides an evil mind.
Also if I’m given a number, and taken away my name. I’ll ask “Who is Number One?”
Rock Star, because I like singing but don’t get along with horses. Also, a super spy’s life expectancy is way too short, and you could never trust anyone, and who wants to live like that?
As for what kind of Rock Star, it’d have to be like a Springsteen/Mellencamp kind of thing — Rock with a strong tie to folk & blues. No synth or glam.
Super Spy. Everything associated with Cowboys is sweaty and smelly and I don’t like animals that are big enough to accidentally kill me and not notice. Rock Stars have to deal with lots of drama and egos, record companies and often a very finite career. Super Spies have the excitement of a Cowboy, the groupies of a Rock Star, and more money than both.