When I Grow Up….

Posted Mar 25, 2006 by Laura Klosterman

Updated Mar 25, 2006 at 11:29 PM

Last Friday, I made an appearance as “Miss Pasco County” at Osceola Middle School in Pinellas Park.  I visited with a few 6th Grade Health classes at this school which was an amazing experience for me. At the beginning of each class I spent a few minutes talking about my platform, “Moving to Prevent Childhood Obesity”, and explaining what the whole “Miss Pasco/Miss Florida” thing was all about. Soon after rattling on about myself, I realized that I really wanted to get to know each of the kids. I wanted to learn their names and a little bit about themselves. I asked questions such as “What kind of sports or extra curricular activities do you like?” Or “What are you going to do over your Spring Break?” These questions allowed me to learn about how busy and active they actually are. And these kids were definitely all about sports! Most of them told me that they loved playing football, baseball, soccer, and cheer-leading . I thought that was so great they are into staying active instead of watching 10 hours a day of TV or playing on the computer for 9 hours each day.

The children also asked me a LOT of questions. They were very inquisitive and their questions were impressive as well. They asked me some pretty tough questions although I was really comfortable when answering them. There were some semi-crazy questions such as “Laura, If you had 15 fingers would you still compete in pageants?” Or, “Laura, if your boyfriend asked you to cut all of your hair off, would you do it?” And, “Laura, have you ever starred in a Colgate commercial?” These kids were really intelligent for their ages.

But I want to highlight a classic and priceless moment that occurred…

I decided to have each child stand up, state their name, and tell everyone what they wanted to be when they grow up. It sounded a little bit like this…
“Hi my name is Alex and I want to be a Veterinarian when I grow up.” 
“Hi, my name is Sarah and I want to be a nurse when I grow up.” 
“Hi my name is Zach and I want to be a baseball player when I grow up.”

“Hi, my name is James and when I grow up, I want to be YOUR husband!”

This moment is a moment I will never EVER forget. Moments like this allow me to realize what an amazing opportunity I have when visiting schools to meet and talk with the children. I am so blessed to have the ability to travel to schools and talk about my platform and just talk to the kids in general. 

THANK YOU Osceola Middle School and Mr. Topping for allowing me to visit with your students. And THANK YOU To the students for making it so memorable!!