Topic : Possibilities

Meg F. Quijano relates the following incident that happened upon her return from a meeting of the National Organization for Women. Her five-year-old daughter, Lisa, greeted her with the news that when she grew up she wanted to be a nurse. There was a time when nursing was thought by many to be a “woman’s job.” Quijano told Lisa she could be anything she wanted to be. “You can be a lawyer, a surgeon, a banker, President of the United States—you can be anything.” Lisa looked a little dubious.

“Anything? Anything at all?” She thought about it, and then her face lit up with ambition. “All right,” she said. “I’ll be a horse.”

Bits & Pieces (New Jersey: The Economics Press, January 6, 1994), p. 17