What Did You Want To Be?

A multi-part question.

1. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
2. When you were graduating high school (or if you haven't yet, when you do), what did you want to be?
3. Did you come ever do either of those jobs? How close did you get?
4. Do you still feel that either of those jobs may happen one day?

The thought process that lead to these questions involves some trigger warnings, so if it's alright with you, I'd rather leave it out. So what did you want to be?

JohnnyBlaze wrote:

1. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was a kid I just had aspirations to do whatever I was interested in at any given time, but no real dream careers.

JohnnyBlaze wrote:

When you were graduating high school (or if you haven't yet, when you do), what did you want to be?

Did you come ever do either of those jobs? How close did you get?

When I was graduating from high school in my senior year, I had been thinking for a long time about becoming a high school teacher, and the two subjects I was interested in teaching were Drama and English, mostly because I made friends with my Drama and English teachers that year, they were both impressed by me and my English teacher in particular encouraged me to pursue a career in teaching English.

I enrolled in college the fall after I finished high school and basically completed a year and a half of college, or three semesters, but during that time my mental disorders had peaked and I was unable to stay in school. Also, being in school made me realize that my style of writing went against how school teaches writing. English stopped being an interest of mine because of the classes I took in college.

JohnnyBlaze wrote:

Do you still feel that either of those jobs may happen one day?

Definitely not because of my case history. There's no way I will ever become a teacher now.

I apologize that I am going to add far more detail than you asked for. This thought line is kind of where I'm spending much of my time these days so forgive my long-windedness.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I actually remember writing down a list of jobs when I was like 10 or so that were "badass" like fighter pilot, detective, and stunt man. I really wanted to be a basketball player in the NBA through like high school I guess I was a little delusional, but a kid can dream, right? Maybe if I had been a foot or two taller..
Professional athlete of some sort still seems like a dream job. I loved being in shape and sports are competitive and fun. They gave me structure and focus and I've always liked physical work where I can just lose myself to the task and just keep improving.

When you were graduating high school (or if you haven't yet, when you do), what did you want to be?

Still had no real idea.. went to college and majored in psych because I had a really interesting class in high school. Psych profiling in movies always seemed cool and I guess I just had a perverse desire to know how the human mind worked.

During college:
Debated becoming a psychologist since I stuck with the major and was very interested in the material, but hyper-competitive grad school conditions and the fact that every single psych undergrad say they are going to be therapists chased me off. I was good in school, but quite meet or feel I could compete with the 3.75+ gpa that some programs required and the thousands of psych undergrads being cranked out of major universities every year with nowhere else to go.

End of college:
Thought about doing law school since everyone (family) said I loved to argue and would be a good lawyer. Ran into the similar problem of everyone in the world is trying to be a lawyer. My sister went to law school (also undergrad as psych) half my friends are there and half my high school class is probably as well. My sister doesn't practice and has pretty much voiced how horrible it actually is and how many of her law buddies hate it and have changed profession. There's also the issue of over saturation in the field, and unlike many of my peers I can not just go into the "family business" to get experience when I'm done. I guess that's what I get for going to rich kid school without actually being rich..

So I wanted money and liked psychology. I worked crummy jobs for a few years and started applying to school because I couldn't even get a slightly less crummy job with a bachelors. I found a little known about area of psych that makes good money and got into a program.

Grad School:
I was gung ho at first and wanted to work and improve the world of design and become a competent, rich, and distinguished PhD. I could use my education to spring board past entry level crap jobs and potentially make 6 figures in the not so distant future. I wanted to use my knowledge, creativity, and passion for inventing to benefit myself and the world and remove danger and inconvenience throughout.

I ran into a snag when I realized many of my classes were not really teaching anything. They were check marks to graduation instead of actual education. Furthermore, I recognized that I still felt unable to get jobs in the field because my education was a lie, I was becoming disillusioned with academia, and I still had (have) an impossible time selling myself to employers.. Other personal issues combined with my lost direction and I pretty much dropped out halfway to PhD.

Current:
Now I want to work in industry and be part of the design and creative process but not sure what I can find without a degree. Thinking about inventing things, but not sure how to get that ball rolling on that.

Did you come ever do either of those jobs? How close did you get?
Do you still feel that either of those jobs may happen one day?

Well my NBA dreams are probably over unless my idea for the short white guy league ever comes to fruition.. .
I did get into grad school for psych, so that's kind of close to my second tier of planning. Potentially I can still get into the industry that I have come to appreciate and am currently looking for work there. I need to overcome some of my MI issues in order to make some significant progress, but it does seem very possible, though not necessarily how I had planned it.

I understand not wanting to make this a trigger thread, but I am curious myself as to what thought process is going on behind it (perverse need for understanding at work again I suppose).

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Sometimes it wasn't really real carrier goals. It was who I wanted to be. For example, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, or a kid who was taken care of by a governess like in the Sound of Music. I guess under it all, though, I wanted to sing.

When you were graduating high school (or if you haven't yet, when you do), what did you want to be?
A rockstar. Not kidding.

Did you come ever do either of those jobs? How close did you get?
No. I did pretty well in music, but it got too stressful and I dropped it. I just don't want to teach music, I wanted to do music...and I realize I never will.

Do you still feel that either of those jobs may happen one day?
No, it'll probably end up a dream I wish I pursued but never did.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to work with animals

When you were graduating high school (or if you haven't yet, when you do), what did you want to be?
A translator or interpreter. I had visions of travelling around the world doing it. Either that or teaching languages.

Did you come ever do either of those jobs? How close did you get?
No. The closest I got was having/breeding pets and doing some translation for friends.

[*]Do you still feel that either of those jobs may happen one day?[/list]
Maybe the translation or teaching languages thing as work on the side or a second career. I' no longer want to work with animals.

1. Eh, I think the first thing I wanted to be was a doctor. When I was in primary school, I decided that I wanted to be a writer of some sort.

2. When I graduated high school, I decided that I wanted to be a film editor.

3. Sort of. I've done a few freelance editing jobs and have won a couple of writing contests.

4. I don't know. It depends. I don't even think I'd like to be an editor anymore because it's such a focused task and I get bored with it unless I'm in a certain rhythm while doing it. As for writing...well, I don't think I'm going to become some great novelist, but I think that writing a trashy paperback romance novel or getting into a few literary journals is possible.

I honestly don't know what my long-term career goal is right now. I'm okay with that outside of wondering whether or not I need to go to grad school. Crossing my fingers for not.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A professional athlete at the sport I did.
When you were graduating high school what did you want to be?
I had no concept of job/work/future/"wanting to be", I just existed in the moment and gave people rudimentory answers based on what would shut them up. In retrospect I would say I wanted to be well-paid without needing to be involved or having to play the game. lol
Did you come ever do either of those jobs? How close did you get?
No they wouldn't train me as an athlete because I was too temperamental and my family were difficult. The second part, yeah I've been existing in limbo occasionally being well off, other times not even having enough to put food on my plate properly, lol depending, ever since.
Do you still feel that either of those jobs may happen one day?
Nope. I have to try to find the ability to apply a sense of direction.

I always dreamed of being the District Attorney of Gotham City. But now I just write crappy tales of woe and misery under a ridiculous pseudonym.

As a kid I wanted to be a physical therapist working with kids with developmental disabilities.

Mid high school I wanted to start my own psych hospital

At the end of high school I wanted to be a film editor

I got my associates degree in graphic design hoping to transfer to a school where I could do film work but then realized that I would never want to work in a field where I was never good enough.

I worked with people with disabilities for awhile, I'm majoring in Psych now and working in the mental health field as someone with lived experience with a mental illness. Not sure where I'll go from here!

not abandoned....