What job did you aspire to when you were a kid?

[Astral Avenger]

I can't say any one thing held my attention as a child for extended periods, but I remember thinking being a LEGO master builder could be awesome. Other than that, I probably wanted to be all of the classic childhood dream jobs at one point or another.

I'm currently in the final semester of a Bachelors of Science in Statistics, which is rather unfortunate as I realized that I hate my major at about the same time that I realized that it would take me another year and a half minimum to switch to something I enjoyed (probably mechanical engineering).

[Prospekt]

I wanted to be a veterinarian. Of course, what I didn't realize is that I'd rather have been a vet technician, since they basically do all the actual typical work and don't have to go to school for an additional 10 years. Vet techs are to animal clinics what nurses are to hospitals, pretty much. Anyway, I went to a small college and studied veterinary assistance- which is doing front desk work mainly and obviously assisting the vet techs with what they're doing- but I haven't had a chance to use it. Places that are hiring either want previous experience (which I have not) or if they're entry level, they're just too darn far away from my apartment. So, I'm a sautee chef at the moment instead. It's not too bad, I do enjoy cooking, and after being a sandwich maker for so long at other restaurants, it's a very welcome change of pace. Plus, I get a 70% discount which means I can make myself a full dinner for under $3.

I wouldn't mind going back to college to study programming so I can get to work on some game ideas I have, also... ...

[Knaight]

As for clergy, nobody gets rich off of that.

If you ignore a number of major exceptions, sure. I can't cover this too much without getting into religion, so I'll just say this: Mansions and jet planes.

[Red Fel]

If you ignore a number of major exceptions, sure. I can't cover this too much without getting into religion, so I'll just say this: Mansions and jet planes.

That's organizations, not individuals.

Don't get me wrong. I thought about getting rich by starting my own religion. To be fair, I am totally deserving of worship.

But do you have any idea how much work goes into being a living god?

[DataNinja]

But do you have any idea how much work goes into being a living god?

I suppose it depends how much caring and/or smiting you want to do.

[Peelee]

That's organizations, not individuals.

Oh, to live a life where you don't know about the individuals....

And that's as close as I'm gonna get to the line.

[Pogona]

I wanted to be a veterinarian, dancer, or writer.

The veterinarian dream died when i realised that university and i just don't work well together. So my plan now - when i can afford to not be working fulltime - is to do some certificates at TAFE so that i can more easily get work with wildlife.

The dancer dream died after i was treated for cancer, received some brain damage from the treatment, and lost a lot of co-ordination and spatial awareness, and it also damaged a lot of my joints, making it very painful to stand or sit for long periods, let alone dance.

I'm still working on the writer dream. i have several short stories, one that i'm currently turning into a graphic novel, and a novel or two in the works. It's just finding the time to write that is the problem.

Currently I work in a government job, in an office doing paperwork. It's mind-numbing and i hate it. the money isn't even that good. Before that it was 11+ years in retail, hospitality and some work with animals.

[AdmiralCheez]

As a kid, apparently I wanted to be a ferry boat captain, just sailing people across rivers all day. Then I wanted to be the weatherman who stands in the middle of hurricanes delivering the weather report, as if he had to prove it to people that his report of a hurricane is correct. As a late teenager, I then wanted to be a filmmaker, and while I still do that as a hobby/side job, my actual day job now is a copy editor. (It's not very exciting.)

[Lexiconjurer]

As a kid, I wanted to be a comic book writer. I made up my own little comics with incomprehensible stories and poorly designed characters, stapled them together, and got my parents to pretend that they liked them. Would be nice to achieve that aspiration someday, though.

[Errata]

At first a fireman, like my grandfather. I was terrified of house fires, at least partially because there was a sticker on my bedroom window that was supposed to indicate to firefighters that there were children in that room.

A few years later, an architect. I still appreciate good architecture, aesthetically, but I don't think it's quite the right field for me.

My actual job is software engineer. Strangely, I'd taught myself to program around 6 or 7, took to it right away, and had been consistently doing it as a hobby all along, but it took a long time to consider that a career option. Children can have strange ideas about what jobs are. Even when I was older and knew it was a career option, it was before the tech boom, and I didn't know what kind of opportunities there were. The only adults I knew who did it did mundane things for not a lot of money, so I thought there were better options. But I kept being drawn back into it by my innate interest, and it eventually worked out well.

[Lateral]

Inventor. Six-year-old me didn't really realize that "inventor" wasn't a job so much as a hobby, in this century at least. The closest thing to it is engineering, which... is what I'm studying now, so good enough, I guess.

[Cola]

In elementary school, I always thought that I would become a "nature explorer" someday, despite having absolutely no clue about neither nature nor exploring. I can't remeber having a particular aspiration after that, always thinking "Well, I'll surely find something someday.".
Now I'm a groundskeeper.

[Viathon]

I wanted to be a Blacksmith. I still do. I'm a qualified Jeweller, a Martial Arts instructor and a Qualified Clockmaker... I think I'm headed in the right direction...

[Perch]

I wanted to be a Buddhist monk but gave up after finding out I need to shave my hair LOL.

[Gaurdian_Angel1]

I wanted to be a ninja. I learned that that was REALLY hard and I am now an aspiring musician.

[Sajiri]

At various stages of my childhood, I wanted to be an archaeologist, a social worker, an author and a stunt horse rider.

I've spent the last 5 years working in a warehouse/office, but Im now training to be a teaching aide.

[Forrestfire]

When I was very small, I wanted to be an Egyptologist. I lay the blame on Yu-Gi-Oh! and the Mummy for that, probably. I don't really remember much of it. My parents and I painted a big hieroglyphic mural on my childhood bedroom though, which was sweet.

There was a long period in my life that I wanted to be someone who builds things. Invention type stuff, but even when I was young, I was sure that wouldn't be a "career"-type job. Through middle school and high school, I learned a lot of things and had a lot of very vague ideas, but no real set path I wanted to follow. A summer camp at one of my state's colleges made me think that I wanted to be an Aerospace Engineer, but that was mostly just a "that could be neat."

I got through high school, got into college, and at the end of two years, realized I absolutely hated and could not seem to understand physics classes well. In order to be an engineer of the sorts I was looking at, it would be more and more of that. Lots of the math was fun, but some of it wasn't, and the important stuff just didn't work for me. I ended up changing my major to Computer Science, and enjoying that much more.

Sadly, thanks to depression, stress, and a general downwards spiral, I'm taking a break from school. Currently, I work part-time at a Kmart (which, frankly, I enjoy quite a bit—the customer service aspects especially), and part-time writing third-party Pathfinder supplements. I fell in with a good group of people and am self-publishing, which is quite fun, but not really a "job" so much as a hobby that pays me some amounts of money to do. Been at both of these things for about two and a half years.

I think that my current prospects are pointing me towards graphic design and layout work, which is a very fun intersection between computer stuff and artsy stuff. Maybe writing will end up being able to pay the rent, but I doubt it. Still endlessly amused by it, though; when I was younger, I was the opposite of a writer... Both my older sister and younger brother loved writing stories and tuning them, but I absolutely hated creative writing of all sorts. Eventually, I became the only one of us to actually publish things. Dunno how it happened, but it cracks me up.

Kinda depressing to look back at it all, but I think I'll manage to move forward. That's what it's about, right? Steps forward, one day at a time.

[RocksInMyDryer]

I aspired to be an architect. Instead I now work for the government.

[Nemirthel]

I changed several times, mostly healthcare-related until I got to high school. I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was really young (around 5-8) and then a physician until I was 11. After that I wanted to be a nurse, but I ended up going to an engineering-obsessed high school where I finally decided that the perfect job for me was mechanical engineering. I applied to study mechanical engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, got accepted, started... and changed my major to chemical engineering 2 weeks later.

That lasted another 8 weeks before I changed to chemistry. I have a degree in chemistry now and I'm working on a PhD in it, so I'm pretty sure I'm done changing this time. Interestingly, after aspiring to be a healthcare provider and later wanting absolutely nothing to do with healthcare, I'm now doing research that has medicinal applications, where my role is completely removed from those applications. Not something I would've predicted, but it's working so far.

[Peelee]

That lasted another 8 weeks before I changed to chemistry. I have a degree in chemistry now and I'm working on a PhD in it, so I'm pretty sure I'm done changing this time.

Hey, that's what im working towards now! Well, the first degree that is. With the doctorate to follow, I hope.

[Prince Zahn]

When I was a kid, everyone always told me that I was perfect to be a lawyer, because I had an answer for everything true story.

later on in elementary school I also underwent several therapy treatments, which worked for me and led me to decide that I want to be a psychologist (I only knew of the clinical kind at the time)

Today, I work as a cashier, and I'm studying some courses so that ideally next year I can enroll in college and study behavioral science, which from my perspective is close enough to studying psychology, but I can start a career from the day I get my B. A.

[Asmotherion]

I wanted to become a Robotics Engeneer. I actually made it, PHD and all, though it was far less of a Mecha Anime-like job than I had expected. For now, I'm on my second diploma in Tourism and Buisness Managment, and working in a Hotel as a Receptionist. I'm aspiring to eventually make it to Japan and follow my Dream-Career.

[Velaryon]

The earliest memory I have of thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up was at age 5: in my kindergarten class we were asked to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up. I did my best to draw a police officer, because I decided that was as close as I could realistically get to being a superhero. Somehow though, the policeman's hat that I tried to draw ended up looking more like a sombrero. I'm still not sure how that happened.

But hey, at least I wasn't the weirdo kid who told the class he wanted to be a carrot when he grew up. I wonder how that turned out for him.

I'm sure after that I went through various permutations of wanting to be a karate master, ninja, etc.

Somewhere around age 10 or 11 I read an interview with Ed Boon and John Tobias of Midway, and all of a sudden I wanted to be a video game designer. I got my mom to enroll me in a computer programming for kids class at my local community college (which I found interminably boring and quit going to after like two days) and to buy me Japanese-English dictionary (which I barely ever used), because at that time Japan (a.k.a. Nintendo) was still heavily dominating the video game industry.

For my later teen years, all through college, I entertained vague notions of being an author, but never took any steps toward actually becoming one. And then I ended up pissing away most of my 20's either working dead end jobs or being unemployed. I pursued a degree in political science because I found the subject interesting, even though I had no interest in teaching it or going to law school (which is basically all you can do with it if you actually want to apply the degree).

Eventually I figured out that even if I couldn't write books, I could still do something book-related, and set about trying to become a librarian. Now I'm (mostly) there, as I have two library jobs, one at which I'm a librarian and one at which I'm something less. Still struggling to find full-time employment and become financially independent, but I'm light years ahead of where I was even 3 or 4 years ago.

[ForzaFiori]

When I was little, I had two goals for life - Either be an archaeologist ala Indiana Jones, or to take over for Jackie Chan when he retired (I was both a martial artist and into acting as a kid). Sadly, I later learned that archaeology isn't that exciting, and that its really hard to get into martial arts/Wuxia films as the main badass when you're not Asian.

So instead, I grew up, and got a degree in History (just cause Archaeology is boring doesn't mean I don't still love history), tried to be a teacher, realized I need an education degree instead, and now I'm looking into law school. Til then though, I make pizza.

[Peelee]

When I was little, I had two goals for life - Either be an archaeologist ala Indiana Jones, or to take over for Jackie Chan when he retired (I was both a martial artist and into acting as a kid). Sadly, I later learned that archaeology isn't that exciting, and that its really hard to get into martial arts/Wuxia films as the main badass when you're not Asian.

If you're even partly serious about that being why you didn't go for the martial arts, let me tell you about the Jackie Chan Stunt Team!

[Nemirthel]

Hey, that's what im working towards now! Well, the first degree that is. With the doctorate to follow, I hope.

Cool! I hope it works as well for you as it has for me.

[ForzaFiori]

If you're even partly serious about that being why you didn't go for the martial arts, let me tell you about the Jackie Chan Stunt Team!

Eh, by the time I was in HS I had dropped martial arts and acting for more... "normal" activities - I played football, soccer, and ran cross country instead. Got tired of being picked on for acting and people trying to pick fights with me when they found out I was a black belt after it got me expelled from a school.

[Eldariel]

Eh, by the time I was in HS I had dropped martial arts and acting for more... "normal" activities - I played football, soccer, and ran cross country instead. Got tired of being picked on for acting and people trying to pick fights with me when they found out I was a black belt after it got me expelled from a school.

...this is really, really sad to hear. People having to give up their own interests and conform, or get picked on, because of teens' bigotry and idiocy. Of course I know it happens and I've been experiencing it myself (e.g. the only reason I started technical handicraft instead of textile handicraft in elementary school was because of peer pressure) - but I'd really hope it's something that can be changed in the future so people can genuinely be themselves even in the toxic school environment.

[2D8HP]

[ForzaFiori]

...this is really, really sad to hear. People having to give up their own interests and conform, or get picked on, because of teens' bigotry and idiocy. Of course I know it happens and I've been experiencing it myself (e.g. the only reason I started technical handicraft instead of textile handicraft in elementary school was because of peer pressure) - but I'd really hope it's something that can be changed in the future so people can genuinely be themselves even in the toxic school environment.

Yeah... It wasn't a great time in my life. Oddly enough though, getting expelled was probably the best thing that happened to me. It took me out of a very conservative, very racially exclusive, very poor town/school, and into one that was a much better fit. I probably could have gone back to my old hobbies after I switched, but by then, I'd gotten into the other sports too, and had lost my touch with the old stuff.

But, in a way, that's life. You constantly have to adapt, you have to learn to let go of old stuff to make room for new, and you have to learn when to bend or give in to pressure, and when to stand and fight. I feel like the difficulties I had in middle school and early high school helped to make me into a better person than if I had gone through life having everything work out for me.