What amazing plans did you have as a teenager that were derailed by real life?

In My Humble Opinion
41

I’ve never had ‘amazing’ plans - total lack of academic or career ambitions. The only thing I really wanted to do with my life was get away from my mom (which I did accomplish age 18), and have my own kids. When I was a teenager, I thought I would have kids when I was young, and I wanted several children. Then I fell in love with a man who doesn’t want biological kids.

I’m 26 now, and while I still want to be a mom more than anything, I’m glad I haven’t had a baby yet. I think I still need some time to focus on myself, continue bettering myself, and build a life I could more easily bring my child into. I only want one bio kid now anyway, so there’s no rush.

42

Let’s see. My grandiose plans at 16 were broken down by age:

18: Enter Political Science program at an Ivy League university
21: Graduate, enter Georgetown Law School, meet girl of my dreams who is as ambitious and professional as I am
25: Graduate, get married, get job at powerful international law firm
30: First kid, work way up to Partner in law firm
35: Second kid
40: Run for U.S. Senate, win, join Foreign Relations Committee
50: Chair Foreign Relations Committee
60: Retire from public service, accept Political Science professorship at prestigious university
70: Retire from academia and travel the world with my tidy accumulation of wealth, possibly gain Ambassadorship to France if I play my cards right
90: Die with no enemies or regrets

I guess life doesn’t always work out the way you expect.

43

I was saving up to take the Trans Siberian Express from Helsinki to Yokohama where I would earn excess amounts of money teaching English to the Japanese. I love trains.

Real life: I sailed across the Atlantic on a 39ft Colin Archer, gaff rigged with a tiller. Havn’t been on many trains since, nor earned excess amounts of money or even met many (any?) Japanese people.

44

I was going to be a history professor, a flight attendent, a pilot and a poet. I quickly found out that:

  • acadamia wasn’t for me
  • I was too tall to be an flight attendent
  • I was too blind to be a pilot
  • I published a couple of poems that I even got paid (!) for publishing and never was offered money for my poems again.
45

I wanted to be a big-name romance novel author like Danielle Steele when I was 12. The work seemed easy, highly-lucrative, and everyone would see my picture in black and white on the back cover of hardback books. Win FREAKIN’ win, baby!

When I was 15, I wanted to write satire like The Onion. A friend of mine and I had an idea to make an underground satire newsletter at our high school… it didn’t work out.

When I was 19, I wanted to be a copywriter for my college paper. Until I went to the callout and saw there were hundreds of people applying for 2 positions. I chickened out.

46

I was going to be a world-famous orchestra conductor, like Toscanini or Stokowski. I didn’t know anyone else who wanted to do that, so I assumed there wouldn’t be a lot of competition. I also had music teachers who praised my talents and encouraged me; none of them even hinted that I might want to have a backup plan.

After college I quickly learned that wanting to be an orchestra conductor is like wanting to be a movie star or a pro football player. I finally decided to change careers when a small-town community orchestra in Arizona declined to consider me for a part-time, poorly-paid conducting job, even after I offered to travel there at my own expense for an interview. Of course, some of my former teachers hassled me for giving up too easily, but I noted that they all had jobs.

47

As a young teen I was planning to be the first woman president of the US. At some point I realized that in order to be president, you have be a lot of other things like senator and governor first–boring. Also I figured that there would be a woman president by the time I was old enough to be it, so then I wouldn’t be first. But it seems that I was wrong about that; maybe I should think about running…

48

I wanted to travel the world (or at least parts of it). I even had a reasonable plan, like I would go volunteer at Pax Lodge. Problem is my money from my part time job mostly went to help my mom keep our household in order so I never saved up enough to buy a plane ticket there (you have to pay to get there, I was told they paid a small stipend and covered your uniform and housing… and hey, it’s England, I could go do touristy things on my days off! It sounded like it would be a lot of work but a lot of fun and good experience also.)

When I realized that wasn’t going to happen I applied for Katimavik, but never got accepted and didn’t apply again.

Instead I moved and went back to school and was encouraged by a counselor that I really COULD go into Paleontology if that was my dream so I worked really hard in my courses, job shadowed the paleontologist at the Royal Alberta Museum and had everything I needed to apply (including the grades) to the program… only to discover they changed the requirements. No big right? I went back again and started taking chemistry (and was shocking myself at how good my grades were, I didn’t think I had an aptitude for chem until then) and then… I got pregnant.

And now I work as an accountant. :stuck_out_tongue: (and STILL get asked by some relatives why I hadn’t gone that route in the first place, I did so well in my junior high accounting course, if I hadn’t dilly dallied around I would be so much further along in my career now!)

49

Actor, artist, writer, and then start a couple of religions. I got some minor traction in a couple of them - but then paychecks and rent and cars and…well, you know the rest…

50

I wish I could find the list I wrote of life goals from sixth grade. I do remember two of them: 1) marry my neighbor - I did give her a gold ring I found that happened to have her initial, but her family moved away that year and I never saw her again. I recently found her on facebook, but she’s married with children, and any way now I’m gay. 2) Become an astronaut - about as far as I got was a Planetary Society membership and a portfolio of space related drawings.

Careers I’ve wanted:
1st grade: airline steward
5th grade: comic book artist
6th grade: astronaut
8th grade: architect
High school: biologist - genetics, abiogenesis, exobiology, or reproductive (like IVF type of thing)
Also at various point been interested in being an author, actor, or filmmaker.

In college I started out as a biology major. I eventually switched to what amount to a triple minor: 1) human reproduction - based on a special seminar series 2) technology in the arts (use computers for art, music, theater) 3) philosophy (just interesting)

Out of college, I became a graphic designer. I’d always had art as a hobby, and in high school I learned Quark XPress to lay out the high school newspaper. In college I had those tech arts classes.

After a few years I couldn’t stand the commute and the indoor smoking so I quit. But one of my main clients there kept me on as a freelancer. Eventually freelancing started to peter out a little after a few years so I got a part time job as a lab assistant at a small genetics company of five people and 4 rooms. After five years we had 12 rooms and 40 people and I had a full time position at a higher rank. But the job had mutated so much as to not be enjoyable.

My freelancing graphic design was picking up again so I left to do that full time. It started to wane again after a few years, and I got a part time job managing a unique store concept. But they had manufacturing issues that caused us to go out of of business.

Since then I’ve been unemployed. There are various things I’ve thought could be fun to do. Such as:

Travel or science writer
Novelist/scriptwriter/filmmaker/actor
Faux painter
Administrative type
Alternative school teacher or childrens program
Museum curator (especially the potential Tesla museum out here)
iPhone app creator
Experience design
Anything for hire
Try for graphic design again
Work for non profit
ESL or adventure company

Right now I’m thinking it would be great to get into publishing. I’ve been really eyeing DK, which publishes cool illustrated books - I think I’d fit in almost any position - writing, illustrating, editing, or managing - and any department - Childrens, Travel, Entertainment, Science/Education/Reference. But I don’t want to jinx it. It would be nice to find some sort of connection to someone there, but at the very least I need to beef up my resume and portfolio first.

I’ve also thought about just getting anything that’s within walking distance of my house :slight_smile:

51

I’ve always been fond of Jupiter. So pretty, and so cool to watch the four major moons in your backyard telescope! The only time in my life when I’ve had a grand plan was during my first year of college. I was going to major in physics. I’d graduate in 1995 and go get a job at JPL, just in time for Galileo to get there and start sending data back. After a few years at JPL, I’d go back to school and get a Ph.D. in something space-related. Probably not astrophysics, but something earth sciences that would work well for studying exploration of the solar system.

Then, I got a 7% on my second year physics midterm. In my defense, it was an extremely rigorous class (the high grade was around 60%), I had a pretty shoddy high school education and wasn’t academically prepared, and I was spending that quarter on crutches and painkillers, thanks to knee surgery at the end of the summer. But still, it was a pretty crushing blow. I spent a year and a half taking electives and general course requirements before becoming a sociology major. Sociology is a good fit for me, I have a job in my field, and someday I’ll even finish my Ph.D!

52

I wanted to be an opera singer. After a year at university studying voice I realized that I had the talent but not the dedication. I liked beer, boys and cigarettes too much. I still sing in the shower though…

53

That’s a thought worth remembering.

54

I’m 43, and I still haven’t been to Europe. I’m finally going to get to go, though- next March.

55

I was going to be a vet until I dissected something and realized that I never wanted to dissect anything ever again.

56

I always wanted to be an “engineer” - basically, I wanted to make stuff. I loved playing with assorted Meccano and Fischertechnik kits when I was a kid, and used to take things apart, just to see how they worked. So I went to college to do Acoustical Engineering, realized I sucked at math (and wouldn’t you know, an engineering degree is all math), transferred to do Philosophy, and never looked back (lots more girls do Philosophy, and I like girls).

I also wanted to become an FBI agent, but that went wrong in a whole different way.

57

Medical school, detailed by a teenaged pregnancy, a teenaged marriage, another teenage pregnancy, followed by a near-teenage divorce.

'nuff said.

58

You could have been a dental floss tycoon.

59

I was going to go to college, do the ROTC thing, and retire at 38 as a full bird Colonel.

Then I decided to take a break from school for a bit, enlisted after high school, and got out four years later as a Lance Corporal, with really no desire to muck about with things military again.

Studied international relations in university, and I decided to move to Washington, get my Master’s in international relations-ish thingies, and become Secretary of State in due course.

But I decided to take a break from school for a bit, did nothing particularly impressive (bartending in a dive), and decided to try teaching English in Japan for a year, year and a half tops.

Almost eleven years later, here I sit, still in Osaka, but now with a Japanese wife. I teach at a university now, which is a big step up from where I started. Thinking about getting my Master’s, this time in Education, so I can move back home some day, if the economy ever improves.

Hmm.

-val

60

I was going to sign up to the police force as soon I was eighteen; by the time that rolled around I’d gone off the idea, but didn’t really know what I would do instead.

From then, I just muddled through. I went to university, I took jobs that interested me after I graduated and decided to work in mental health.

It seems like a complete accident that I find myself where I am: I’ve climbed quite high up the ladder in the charity I work for, and I completed a postgrad course in counselling too so I have an alternative career as a therapist lined up if I get sick of management.

I’m very happy. I do wonder if I would have made a good police officer, and the answer is usually ‘no’.