In the past week, I’ve met about 200 area kindergarteners.

Other Messenger employees met the remainder of them and we now know what each one wants to be when they grow up. We also learned what their favorite things to do are. Surprisingly there were a decent amount of children who enjoy cleaning and washing dishes. (If the parents of those kids ever need babysitters, you know where to find me!)

As part of our annual publication celebrating the first year of school for Pike County children, we visited each school, took photographs and found out the plans made by the Class of 2025.

Not out of the ordinary, there are many area children who want to be firefighters. My favorite reason for wanting to be a firefighter came from Kaden Ochieng in Tina Adler’s class at Troy Elementary School. She said she wanted to be a firefighter “so I can get a kitty or dog out of a tree.”

In Janice Waldrop’s class at Covenant Christian School, I met a handsome young man named Gabe Jones who wants to be a superhero. He said he’d like to play football, too, but that would just be for fun, not his job. And, like many superheroes, Gabe’s favorite thing to do is shoot arrows from his bow.

Andrew Dixon in the same class is a kid after my own heart. He wants to be a paleontologist and his favorite thing to do is play with his dinosaur toys.

There are lots of future football players and cheerleaders in area schools, but a few kids chose sports that aren’t necessarily as popular in the South.

Nazir Moore in Courtney Smyth’s class at TES said he wants to be a boxer and Cornelius Griffin (son of former NFL Redskin Cornelius Griffin) in Annette Siler’s class at New Life Christian Academy wants to play pro soccer because he likes kicking the ball in the net.

Back in the crime fighting category, some children shared they’d like to join the Army or Marines because they want to protect their families. Many students hope to be a police officer one day so they can catch “bad guys” and drive fast in police cars. But, Tiauza Roberson in Courtney Smyth’s class wants to protect the whole city as she works as a monster hunter. Tiauza’s favorite thing to do besides monster hunt is cheer.

In one of the classes reporter Ryan McCollough visited with, Brendon Nickerson in Teresa Register’s class wants to be the big guy in the red suit – Santa Claus – because he makes toys.

The Class of 2025 is full of dreamers and hopers and spending time with them on this project has been a way to renew our jaded adult spirits.

We hope that parents and teachers will save a copy of The Messenger’s special publication “Class of 2025” to show it to students when they are seniors. And we hope those seniors keep a copy to show their own children as they begin Kindergarten to remind themselves of what it was like to be able to imagine becoming a cowboy or “hair didder.”

It will be interesting to watch this “class” as they grow. Will the future Ninja Turtles and princesses become accountants and nurses, or stick to a life of crime fighting and ruling Pike County with grace and compassion?

We’ll see in a little more than a decade.

Copies of “Class of 2025” will be distributed in Tuesday’s edition of The Messenger.