What’s Your Dream Job?

A long time ago, when I was about four years old, I was “helping” my grandmother in her ceramic shop when one of her customers asked me “Shannon, what are you going to be when you grow up?” I can remember very clearly telling the nice lady that I intended to be the president someday.

Flash forward thirty-odd years and we’re in the midst of the Iowa caucus season (the “Hawkeye Caucii”) and I can tell you that now that I am grown up (this is subject to debate depending on who you ask), I have no such intention.

Although no one has asked me for two or three decades what I want to be when I grow up, I still sometimes think about the question. Over the years I’ve had several different dream jobs, but one seems to persist. I think about it on airplanes, I am reminded of it when I shave in the morning, and sometimes it occurs to me while I’m at my actual job.

So what do I want to be? Well, despite a technical education, a home in small-town middle America, and lots of agricultural experience, I hope to someday host my own late night talk show. This seems like the most wonderful existence to me. You get to know the latest gossip, you have a research staff to keep you current with the news, and you meet the people who make the news. You deliver a humorous commentary on this nightly, and you go on to interview some of the people responsible. You become an insider in famous circles. All of this, plus you get paid.

I think I first got the idea when I was three or four years old, around the same time I tried to declare my candidacy for president. I remember very clearly sitting with my dad in his black leather recliner and watching Johnny Carson most nights. I wouldn’t understand all the humor until years later, but I always got a kick out of the animals when they were on with Jack Hannah and I loved the opening music. Later, in high school, I began to pay more attention to David Letterman who came on after Johnny finished up. Despite an aversion to Paul Schaffer which I still have today, I loved the more rough and tumble format of the show, and Dave had an edgy side which came out when he interviewed guests. Sometime after high school, I began to follow Tom Snyder as he interviewed guests on his own “late late show”, seemingly uniquely suited for a late night audience. I loved the feeling of connectedness you got when he interviewed someone like Don Rickles and they then started discussing some shared experience from decades before.

Is it feasible? Who knows? Who cares – it is a dream after all. Do fantasies need to be practical? I would just say that I have the “late night” thing down pat. If I did pursue this, I would consider it a success if I attained even the modest status of something like the local access program produced by Wayne and Garth in “Wayne’s World”.

Thanks for stopping by, and “That’s our show tonight, folks.”

Oh, and “Party on, Garth!”