About Me — Katlyn Gallo

Discovering myself one day at a time.

When I think back on my childhood, one of the things I always recall is never knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up. You all remember that question, right? You might’ve been in first grade, or maybe you were in fifth grade, but at some point, you were asked that question.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Whenever I was asked that I could never answer it, or at least not honestly. All the kids around me would answer with the typical responses: firefighter, vet, doctor, or teacher. There were some that got really creative and specific, and I sometimes wonder if those people have ended up in those careers they picked out for themselves 20 or 30 years ago. Likely not, but I’m sure a small percentage have!

For me, my response was always changing based on my latest interests. I honestly don’t remember what I would put down, but I’ll never forget that my fourth-grade yearbook says I want to be a professional basketball player when I grow up. Yes, you read that right.

At the time of writing that, I was obsessed with the game knockout. We would play it in gym or at recess, and I wasn’t any good but it was the latest thing I enjoyed doing, so I guess nine-year-old me thought I could make a career out of it! It’s probably the biggest joke of my childhood now because I never played basketball. It only took me a few years to look back and laugh at how ridiculous that answer was.

But can I blame myself? How can anyone under the age of 18 even answer that question? I couldn’t even answer it as a Freshman in college. I majored in Finance to start because “I’m good at math”. Seriously, that’s what I would tell people when they asked what I wanted to do with a Finance degree. “Well I don’t know but I’m good at math so I think I can do good in a Finance career”.

Again, I look back and think how ridiculous that was!

Fast forward a year, and I was working as a customer service representative at a local manufacturing company. I started doing a lot of reporting and analytics type of work, and one day a co-worker asked me, “have you ever thought of going into technology? I think you’d do well in the IT field.”

And the rest is history!

I changed majors, finished out my degree program, and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Management Information Systems.

I snagged an internship on a Server Administration team and was lucky enough to get hired at that same company full-time at the end of the internship. To say I felt lucky is an understatement. I’m forever grateful that I was able to get a full-time position in the field I wanted to be in, right out of college. That doesn’t happen much.

Thinking back on all that’s brought me to where I am today, I struggle to understand how we’re expected to know what we want in life at such young ages.

We all hear stories about people that have dreamt of being a doctor their whole life and finally achieve that title. Or the people that want to follow the family legacy of being in the military, maybe being a police officer or taking over the reins in a family business.

Growing up I always envied those kids because they knew what they wanted in life and I had no idea. I realize now that was sort of a blessing. Not having any idea of what I wanted in life has led me here, where I sit on my couch, doing something I enjoy, in a home I never expected to have at the age of 24.

So who am I?

Well, I ask myself that every day, because I don’t have an answer to that just yet.

I know more about who I am today than I did yesterday or when I was six years old, but who I am will continue to change. While there are some constants, like the fact that I love reading, ice cream, and anything chocolate, there are some parts of my being that I feel I haven’t even discovered yet, or am in the process of discovering. Like my love of writing, which has brought me here, to Medium.

As I round out my 24th year here on Earth, I’m making it a point to live my life. I want to be adventurous and do what makes me happy, which is what life is all about.

I wish I could go back in time and talk to my younger self. I would tell her, when someone asks what you want to be when you grow up, tell them this:

I don’t know what I want to be, but I know I want to make a difference in the world. I want people to know my name.

Because that much I know is true. And that is why I write.