What Do You Want to be When You Grow Up?

Mom: So Julian, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Julian: Mom, I'm only 9 years old. I'm just a kid. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up yet.

Mom: Ok.

Time passes.

Julian: Mom, I think I might want to be a marine when I grow up.

Mom: A marine? How come?

Julian: So I can help protect my country.

Mom: Well, do you want to be a marine with a gun in a battlefield, or to do you want to be one of the generals making all the plans.

Julian: I think maybe a general ...

Mom: Well you have to get really good grades in school, then go to officer's training and the military academy. You know, you might not be able to be a marine because you're going to be so tall. They told grandpa he couldn't join the marines because he was so tall.

Julian: Really?

Mom: Yes, but he helped defend our country in other ways.

Julian: How?

Mom: He went to college, became really smart, and then helped pioneer the development of aircraft radar, which the military installed on those big AWAC planes.

Julian: Oh.

Time passes.

Julian: I think I want to be a marine.