What did you want to be?

[alias_sqbr]

I have an idea for a poll (inspired by this one and it's comments), but first need some data. So: what career(s) did you seriously consider in your youth? Lets say school-age, 5-17, since before that you're too young to know much, and after that you've plausibly started actually training for it. Any extra interesting information you feel like adding is welcome :)

Myself? In order: Writer, teacher(from early childhood till I did work experience as a teacher in year 11 :)), actor/comedian, astronomer/theoretical physicist (which lasted until my first astronomy lecture in second year :/)

Plus lots of vague ponderings that didn't last long.

And of course I got to combine a lot of these working at Scitech, which was fun for a while but reaffirmed that I do not, in fact, want to be a teacher or actor. Doing My Phd, and my webcomic, have somewhat satisfied the writing bug too.

Comments

[callistra.livejournal.com]

- Writer
- English Teacher

That was it. I wrote novels when I was 15 onwards, but stopped once I hit uni. The teaching thing was so I'd have a job, and I liked school.

I got my BA English and Comparative Literature, discovered I can't stand teachers, and ended up in IT. Now I've started writing novels again, which has had a bit of baggage to sort out because I stopped for ten years (emotional baggage, nothing else.)

:-)

[flyingmopsy.livejournal.com]

Vet

[alias_sqbr]

Knew your own mind better than most kids, then :)

[alias_sqbr]

Heh, yeah, work experience was enough to put me off teaching, it's not as fun as it looks :) I was never good enough at writing essays to do humanities past highschool, though I still have a real soft spot for them.

I got a HUGE mental block about writing after highschool, unexpectedly the constant rewriting of my Phd helped break that. (Also realising that I'm better at comics than prose)

[flyingmopsy.livejournal.com]

I think it's a vet thing; most of the vet students I have asked have known for a long time that they want to be a vet.

[violetsquirrel.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be a vet until about age 11-12, then I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. By the end of highschool I wasn't sure I wanted to be a lawyer exactly, but definitely something in that kind of field.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Work experience at highschool was OK. Work experience during uni as part of the teaching 101 course sucked ass. I looked around at the people during lunch and morning recess and the thought of spending all my time with them made me cry. And then I realised I was on the same career path - straight out of highschool, straight into uni, and nothing in between.

I have friends who have done it, but they're rare breeds.

[flyingmopsy.livejournal.com]

I should added that while I have always wanted to be a musician, I decided at quite a young age that I wouldn't really want to try and make a career out of it. I'm still happy with it being a hobby, though I would like to play more gigs than I currently am.

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

We start similarly...

From very early in my life until I started high school I wanted to be an author, which is funny because I didn't read very much when I was younger. I wrote a lot of crazy shit, though - stories that would start with a family trip to the zoo and end (almost accidentally) with us fighting giant spiders from outer space or something. Go figure. I think I eventually realised that my imagination VASTLY outweighted my writing ability, so that idea eventually faded.

Then throughout a large portion of highschool I wanted to be a teacher. At first I wanted to be a primary school teacher, then later I changed my mind and decided I wanted to teach high school mathematics. A small part of me still does.

In later high school, I decided I wanted to do "something with computers", in as naive a way as that term suggests.

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

Actually, when I think about it some more, I think the desire to teach high school maths might not have hit me until I was studying maths at Uni. I think I mostly wanted to teach primary school when I was that young.

[nephron.livejournal.com]

The order is approximately right:

Baker.
Pianist.
Music teacher.
Researcher (genetics).
Midwife.

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be a scientist (unspecified), then an architect or graphic designer, then a journalist, then a game designer, then a mathematician (well, sort of). At various times I thought it'd be really cool to be a critic (not of anything in particular - just some sort of critic!). Notably I never ever wanted to be either a doctor or a lawyer.

Then I became a software engineer. I wouldn't mind being a writer but I've never put any eggs in that basket.

[elaran.livejournal.com]

Doctor was pretty much it from the start. It was encouraged and I went along with it though I was thinking more along the lines of research for a fair while.

The only other two I considered were being an astronaut [along with being an astrophysicist with it - but this was more of a dream because I didn't ever think I was smart enough or dedicated enough for it in terms of maths] and a lawyer.

[lilysea.livejournal.com]

Ones that I remember (not in order)

teacher
librarian
marine biologist
teacher-librarian
writer
academic/university lecturer
environmental scientist

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

Meteorologist
Vet
Scientist
Gentleman Science-Adventurer.

Sorry - that last one is more recent than your parameters. :)

[velithya]

I was going to be a doctor because mum and dad were doctors.

Then my brother went into medical school and I realised that I didn't want to be a doctor, and I liked computers and had to pick _something_, so I thought, well, okay, I'll go and do software engineering.

And then I got a part-time job at a medical practice and changed degrees halfway through, and am now a medical secretary/accountant and going to be an author.

[elaran.livejournal.com]

Er, to be more specific, doctor was always there, so from age 5 onwards. In primary school you're meant to tell them what you want to do when you grow up and I always wrote down 'find a cure for cancer and HIV'. :P

Astronaut+astrophysicist was from about 8-14 [because I got really really interested in stars and space and then I wanted to be Sam Carter and then I started sucking at maths and didn't think it would practical].

Lawyer from 14 til I actually wrote down my preferences for uni when I put Med as my 1st preference because if Med isn't the first preference, you're not even considered.

[auntpol.livejournal.com]

His first word was "Birdie". I guess he had an affinity for animals from fairly early in life.

[auntpol.livejournal.com]

Hrm...

Doctor
Marine biologist (Everyone thought this would be cool as a kid!)
Pharmacist (God knows why. I think I liked the idea of the orderliness of a pharmacy?)
Doctor again
Scientist (of some sort. I didn't really know).

I still don't really know what I want to do, Dr. Sophie!! I think I want to do research in science (in biochem, because biochem is fun!), but who knows what will happen. The world is full of possibilities.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, I decided against the "actor" thing pretty quickly, I've seen how hard that sort of life is.

[alias_sqbr]

Baker

And then you found out how early you'd have to get up? :)

[nephron.livejournal.com]

I think I was mostly interested in the idea of being around that many baked goods.

[alias_sqbr]

I think "game designer" is the geek version of "writer", the creative endevour that sounds a a lot more fun and glamorous than it really is, and that a lot more people aspire to than achieve :)

I definitely never wanted to be a doctor (didn't have the marks anyway). I remember looking into becoming a solicitor for a school assignment on careers but I think that was just to make sure I didn't want to do it, since as a fairly but not amazingly high achiever law was one of those things everyone told me I should apply for (along with engineer, which was only slightly more appealing)

[alias_sqbr]

I was thinking about what allows you to plot without description: roleplaying! :)

Yeah, I was very much going to teach either primary school, or whatever I was currently planning as my major at uni (english, then physics)

And I only did CS at uni because my then boyfriend persuaded me it would be cool as a fill-in unit :)

[alias_sqbr]

I can definitely see the appeal of that :)