Hey! Is that some backhanded way of saying you don’t like me? 
First I wanted to be a ballerina. Then I wanted to be a brain surgeon. Then I wanted to write (any kind would do). And that’s what I do.
A stunt man.
Hooper warped me as a child.
I wanted to be a lawyer.
I was a weird kid…I wanted to be a bus driver. Of course, that was kindergarden, when one driver took us to school, and another took us home. I was convinced all I had to do was 30 minutes of work a day. That was before I realized the concept of hourly pay.
I also wanted to be a garbagewoman, a crossing guard, and a siren worker on a firetruck.
Once I got older, I wanted to be a vet. Then I took high school biololgy, and mutilated a poor earthworm, and realized I could never do that to someone’s pet, and put them back together again.
That busdriver idea is starting to look appealing again…
Doctor. I still think it would have been a good career for me, but the way health care has gone, I’m glad I didn’t get on that bus (actually, the bus pulled away without me: I was a pretty lazy undergrad).
Hey, that’s what I wanted to be!
Actually, I wanted to be a vet when I was younger. But then my aunt the vet told me that being a vet is 90% dealing with irritable owners and only about 10% working with animals. Then I wanted to be a marine biologist until I helped out at the local university and decided marine worms are icky.
So in high school, I had vague ideas of being one of those hip career girls I read about in Mademoiselle who live in Manahttan and have fabulous affairs with French men.
Sigh. That hasn’t happened either…
Alternated between fireman and astronaut. Always had an appreciation for the classics.
Alive.
Well, for years I wanted to be an over the road truck driver. 'Bout drove my mother nuts, that did…
Then I wanted to be a famous writer or reporter - like the chick from the old mysteries (I can’t remember the name - in the book she went to Vernon College - her mom was famous at the college - there was a fire in her dorm in one book, she had a roomate named Shirley - aw hell…)
The I wanted to be a lawyer.
I’m a secretary.
The books I was talking about was THE BEVERLY GRAY SERIES!!!
Sorry - that had been bothering me.
I grew up playing with GI Joe, little green army men, and toy guns. I watched Combat, Rat Patrol, and gloating WWII documentaries like Victory at Sea. I wanted to be a soldier more than anything. I even lived the dream briefly, before hearing loss snatched it away.
I wanted to be an archaeologist. When I was 10, my mom introduced me to a friend of hers whose husband was an archaeologist, thinking I might be interested. This lady just kept telling me about what little money he made, how his work was very boring, and how he rarely had the opportunity to work, about how he just sat around the house all day.
Sort of turned me off archaeology.
I was morally opposed to the idea of learning to read, so my aspirations were either a window washer, or the Queen of England, neither of whom need to read, ever, apparently.
I wanted to be a scientist. I had all the requisite kid geek gear: an electronics kit, a chemistry set, a microscope, all sort of tools that I’d scrounged. I read all the books on science in the elementary school library. When I got into high school, I got through Physics with a 107 average, despite absolutely sucking at any form of higher math (I secretly programmed my pocket computer to solve the equations for me). I collected all the cool collectable stuff from NASA, where my mom worked. I collected rocks everywhere I went. I built model rockets.
Needless to say, I didn’t date much.
And… now I’m an artist. But hey, at least I married a scientist.
I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon and team doctor for a major league baseball team.
I was a big science geek, so I wanted to be a doctor. Then I realized that I didn’t really like people. So, then I wanted to be Quincy. Then it dawned on me that bad smells made me vomit. I’ve grown up to be an environmental scientist. Now I, too, just want to retire.
sigh I’m so lame. For a long time I wanted to be a firefighter. I eventually, somewhere around middle school, realized that that’s kinda an impossibility for a female who’s an even five-feet and all-around tiny. So I switched goals, and decided I’d become a writer.
I’m just now realizing that, hey, maybe I’d like to, you know, have a steady paycheck once I’m on my own. So, since I’m still not quite grown-up, I’d like to go into politics or diplomacy, but something more behind-the-scenes, as my public-speaking skills aren’t.
Other than the artist and married part…are you my sister?? She wanted to be an astronaut, until, somewhere around first grade she realized that that’s not the most dependable goal. So she told my parents (at the age of SIX) that she wanted to be an astronautical engineer. Which, frighteningly enough, she’s a few months away from getting her degree in.
Ever since I was two years old I wanted to be a paleontologist. Back then there were very few dinosaur toys, so my mom had to sew me a 4-foot long stuffed brontosaurus. How I loved that brontosaur…
I come from an academic family, both my parents have doctorates. At about the age of 10 I realised that I wanted to be a mathematician. Did maths in college, had first major depressive incident in my final year and never got the ability to concentrate and do maths back afterward, barely graduated (thanks to some sympathetic professors, without whom I would have failed). Not sure I would have been good enough anyway (postgrad maths is a whole different world from undergrad) but I still feel the loss 12 year later. I still don’t consider myself a grown up at 32 and am currently casting about for a new direction (I went into IT after college by default) whilst avoiding conversations about being the black sheep of the family for not having a doctorate (or even a masters),