I was having some semi-philosophical thoughts in the shower this morning, and realized that I am nothing like (and nowhere near) what I wanted to be “when I grow up.”
As a little girl (five or six) I wanted to be a ballerina and/or artist. I never took ballet, and only took the required art class in junior high.
In high school, I wanted to be an equine veterinarian. So, I went to one of the few colleges in the country that offers pre-vet school with an equine specialty. That lasted one quarter. I realized that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life with my arm up a horse’s ass or driving around to hell and back in all kinds of weather at all times of day and night.
So I changed my major to English education. That lasted all of one quarter. I dropped out of college, due to untreated depression and a bad, co-dependent relationship. That was in 1999.
Seven years later, I am happily married (more than five years) with an adorable 7 1/2 month old son. We’ve got a dog and a mortgage and two cars (which are paid off). But some how, I’ve ended up doing accounting (AP/AR) and office manager/receptionist-like work for the past four years.
A couple of years back, I “tried” going back to college - I took Speech over the summer. Since I never got around to filling out financial aid paperwork, that one class cost me somewhere around $700. That was the end of college try #2.
So now, I am working part-time at a costume shop, doing the office paperwork and helping out with customers when we’re busy. I took the job because we needed a little more money to make it, and I can take my son with me. It’s fun and interesting, but I don’t want to be there long-term. I’m also a very part-time Mary Kay lady. I’m just not enough of a self-starter to really make it a full-time commitment.
How about you? Are you what you wanted to be when you grew up?
I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. As a kid I think I assumed I’d be an aerospace engineer like my father, in college I changed majors once a year (it seems) and although I ended up with environmental science, I’m a computer geek by trade.
Wife, two kids, mortgage, economy car and minivan… Nope, I’m fairly sure I’m not what I thought I wanted to be.
But I didn’t go straight to grad school after I got by bachelors. Oh, I took a few grad classes as a non-degree seeking student. And I hung around with some of the grad students. And the amount of financial and political and social nonsense that went into getting a science doctorate just dismayed me. I drifted around the periphery of the university system for a while but finally stopped.
Now years later I’m working with computers. Married, with young kids and a house. There’s no way I could devote years of my life to getting a doctorate at this point, much less getting an academic position. However, paleontology is one of those fields where “amatuers” can still make significant contributions. I keep telling myself I’ll devote more time to it…once the kids are a bit older, once I have more free time, once I’m not commuting so much…
Yeah, pretty much. I always wanted to be a teacher. After 10 years in the private sector, I finally went back to school and followed the dream. The jury’s still out on whether or not this was a Good Thing.
When I was very young, I wanted to be a fireman-astronaut-architect. All of these were very appealing to my five-year-old self, so I figured I’d just do all three.
This later turned out to be impractical.
In my 8th-grade yearbook, under “Future Endeavor”, I put “computer field”. Keep in mind that this was 1981 – my godmother worked with computers, and I loved going to her company in NYC and seeing all those huge machines, and all the techs working with their punch cards.
Times may have changed a bit, but yes, I’m all grown up and I do indeed work in the computer field.
Yes. I always dreamed of being an archaeologist and have been one now for about 10 years. It isn’t quite a glamorous as I anticipated - I have never been to Egypt, haven’t discovered any lost civilizations, never killed a Nazi, and I don’t work for a museum. On the other hand - I routinely go on excavations, get to work with a phenomenal group of people, know more about local adaptations to climate change than I ever though possible, and am extremely well-versed in the minute details of historic preservation law. It is pretty cool but I’m still looking for that one discovery that will cement my reputation in the annals of cool stuff people have found.
Incidentally, a couple of years ago I was going through some old boxes of stuff from my youth and I came across a large coffee table type book called The Adventure of Archaeology. My parents had given it to me when I was 7 or 8 and had inscribed it with “We hope this inspires you.” I showed it to my Mom and she got all teary-eyed.
I’m a librarian, who only got into the field at the age of 28, after running into dead-ends in a couple of other fields. So, when I was growing up, I knew that there were librarians, but I didn’t think I’d become one. If anything, I thought I might become an academic, like my father.
I’m now employed in a very specialised librarian field:I won’t say what it is, because it’s so specialised that saying what it is would identify who I am. When I was growing up, I had no idea that this kind of job existed (even though in fact it did, even back all those many years).
I’ve wanted to be on the radio just about as far back as I can remember. I started out in the '70s. Then there were a lot of years when I wasn’t on the radio, but I lucked into it again once I moved down here. I just got promoted to job-for-life here at the station, so yeah! I’m what I wanted to be when I grew up.
When I was really little, I wanted to be a part-time fireman-cheerleader-magician. Then, I wanted to be an archaeologist or a criminal defence lawyer. I’m none of these things.
In college I planned to go for a doctorate in medieval history. Life got in the way, and also it’s pretty hard to make it in academia like that right now. So I ended up in librarianship, which I never thought I’d do, but I love it.
I wanted to be an archaeologist or the first woman president. I am a librarian and SAHM. I realized that archaeologists spend all their time camping in dirt (OK, but not really as a full-time thing), and that if you’re going to be president you have to be a politician and be elected to the Senate and so on. Ick.
I’m a law student in Washington, and I wanted to be a lawyer since I was a little kid. I’m not “grown up” yet, but I’m well on my way, and there was a time in high school when it looked like I might not even make it into college, let alone law school.
So, I’m well on my way to being what I want to me when I grow up.
When I was little I wanted to be an Astronaut. One of my first memories is “Man landing on the Moon”. I watched it live on our huge 19" Black & White set with my whole family.
By the time I was in 6th grade, I knew I wanted to be an Engineer. I was leaning towards being an EE. This did not preclude also being an astronaut, so I did not completely abandon this wish.
I was not a bad student in High School that mostly got by in any class that did not interest me. Therefore, I did well with Math and Science and poorly in English & History. I did great on all the various standardized testing. This left me out of the scholarship hunt. I was clueless how to apply for aid and tried going full time to the local community college in Engineering while working over 30 hours a week in two jobs.
I joined the Navy, got out resumed going to college, realized none of my friends or my Fiancé actually got jobs in Engineering and jumped into Business Programming. Now I live in my cubicle world.
I wanted to be an opera singer. I got as far as being a voice major for a year at university where I discovered I had no where near the self-discipline necessary. (“What do you mean no drinking/smoking/carousing???”) So I then decided I was going to be a lawyer and graduated with a degree in Pol Sci. Thank Og I worked at a law firm for a year before going on to law school because I discovered I despised it. I drifted through a bizarre assortment of jobs until I decided to take the Foreign Service exam. So now I’m a globe-trotting, international woman of mystery. Not what I planned on but it’s still pretty cool.
Now that I’m thinking about it, when I was about 7, I wanted to own a horse ranch out west. I guess that’ll have to wait til after retirement.
I wanted to be an archaeologist. I’m in an inter-disciplinary major now that has Mediterranean archaeology as a component, but I will not be working in the field in any capacity. The goal now is to go to law school like DH, so we can afford “expeditions” in style.
I wanted to be a veterinarian for a while there too, until my sperm donor “wrecked” my Thoroughbred. Watching the vet sew a 4" by 4" gap in Rip’s chest up cured me of that notion. I still assist the vet that comes out for the horses we board, though. He makes me hold their tongues while he floats their teeth, yuck. I can do it, but you couldn’t pay me enough to do it every day!
