As a kid what was the first thing you dreamt of being when you grew up?

When I was little people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I can astutely remember saying “A mental nurse”! I obviously had the components in my mind but had not worded it correctly. I wanted to be a Psychologist. It was something that was inherent to me. Opportunity to study did not present itself to me, early on in life, so I was a mature student. I still carry that dream! I will one day I hope become that person. It;s a lovely question because I think it is in our childhood our true selves dwell, and self actualization is when we match that passion in the now.

Like many little girls, I wanted to be an actress. I had the opportunity do do some acting and learned I was a better re-actor than actor. I was only a so-so actor So it’s a good thing I didn’t count on its being a vocation. As it is, I use my face a lot in communicating and that’s fine. As an avocation, I worked a lot in community musical theater, on stage, back stage and front of the house. So I kind of had my cake and ate it too.

I wanted to be an astronomer but as I grew older and more mature I began to realise I didn’t know what I wanted to be.

An archaeologist.

A writer/artist and a veterinarian.

I don’t remember wanting to be anything particularly. I guess I must have but I have no idea what it was. I do remember having a nurses outfit to dress up in and insisting I wear it to go shopping and on outings. As a teenager I wanted to join the navy until my brother dashed those dreams by telling me women couldn’t go to sea (which I believe was right at that time).

In all seriousness, I wanted to be motercycle cop.

An explorer. I read a lot of National Geographics and Life magazines, and read about people who explored the world. My family moved a lot and we went to Colombia, Panama, and New Brunswick when I was small. and my dad told stories of going to the Yukon in 1939 with his dad, who’d been a gold miner.

When I was a bit older, I wanted to be an adventurer, climbing mountains. That lasted until I realized it wasn’t for me.

A pilot for a airline company. I knew several while I was going up, neighbors and friends of my father.

I wanted to be a mail man. I couldn’t understand why my mother wasn’t impressed. Maybe it has something to do with me being a girl…

I wanted to be an author and illustrator of children’s books. That’s what I said when I was six. I still have a few of the little booklets I made then. They were mostly revolting morality tales featuring bunny rabbits and/or golden-haired little girls, but one was a murder mystery.

A little later I thought I’d be a teacher, and I guess I thought that until I was in college.

In those benighted days, the options for a girl looked pretty limited: nurse, teacher, secretary, or housewife. That was pretty much it. I remember in third grade we had to draw a picture of what we wanted to be and write a little story about it. For some mad unknown reason, I drew a concert pianist, but that whim didn’t survive the realities of piano practice.

The girl next to me said she wanted to be a doctor. The teacher spoke to her very gently: “You mean nurse, don’t you, dear? Boys are doctors; girls are nurses.”

An astronaut-clown. Yep.

An astronaut. I grew up too tall, and with bad eyesight, so that wasn’t an option.

I was going to be a flight attendant until I developed a horrible phobia of heights and flying around the age of 7, that still persists to this day.

I wanted to be a ballet dancer first. But really, that was only the costumes and the glamour. My mother convinced me that ballet dancers suffer with feet that bleed and I decided, maybe not. In high school I wanted to be a conductor! I thought how great it would be to stand up there commanding an orchestra…I was very shy however, and had no musical training whatsoever. Somehow I decided that becoming a fashion designer was really it. I was lucky that I could afford to go to college for it at an inexpensive state university. It isn’t always easy, and certainly not always glamourous but I love my work. My alternate career aspiration even now is anthropologist…or writer.
@TheProfoundPorcupine how do you like being an archeologist? I think it sounds like it would be so interesting? The only thing I think I wouldn’t like is obsessively studying one small aspect of a very large subject. It seems like field work might be like that, a lot of grunt work with no promise of any great breakthroughs…

@Kardamom: Me, too, but I called it a stewardess.

I always wanted to be an Anthroplogist and a librarian. Don’t ask me how I planned to mix the two, but I loved learning about how other people lived and what they thought about everything, and also loved books.

The first thing I can actually remember wanting to be was the President. After that, I went through a phase where I wanted to be a lawyer, then a marine biologist, and then a dolphin/whale trainer. I didn’t become any of those things.

It was either being a ballerina or teacher when I was very very little, I am not sure which was first. After that I wanted to be an accountant, that idea started in 6th grade.

Professional soccerist or Mickey Mouses’ stunt double.

I wanted to be a fashion designer (which seems so odd now, since I am not remotely fashionable), then an architect or a librarian. College was not in the cards for me, so I became none of those things.

Behind all of that, I always wanted to be a writer. I’ve been lucky enough to apply writing skills to many of the jobs I’ve held, and continue to do so.

@GracieT Then you must be my soul sister!

I wanted to be anything to do with horses. I decided on a race jockey because it looked exciting, but I abandoned that dream when I found out how little they get paid.

When I was 4 my aunt had twin girls, and my mom told me once that I used to say I wanted to be the one to look inside pregnant girls belly’s and tell them about their babies. But now..of course, I know that that’s and ultrasound technician, which is something I’m still interested in doing.

I wanted to be a veterinarian, until my father gently pointed out that I would be dealing with animals that were very sick and some would die and we talked at length about how it is one thing to love being around animals, but it takes a certain type of person to deal with death of things they loved on a constant basis. (Wise, wise man knew I was far to sensitive and knew first hand about dealing with more death than a normal person can handle.)

Then, I switched to answering the question ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ with ‘I don’t know, but something creative.’ Naturally, I took up business studies and accounting. (hahaha.)