What did you want to be when you grew up?

[HarmonicGenerator]

And how were your childhood job dreams crushed? Or did you achieve your dream?

 

I wanted to be a palaeontologist. Even before Jurassic Park came out, dinosaurs were my thing. I could name them, identify them, tell you where their fossils were found and all that sort of stuff when I was really young. Had those magazines where you built the skeleton bit by bit, books, had a wooden pterodactyl hanging from the bedroom ceiling that my grandad made, I watched Denver The Last Dinosaur purely because it had a dinosaur in it... mad on them. Yep, when I grew up I was going to discover dinosaur bones and piece them together and display them in the Natural History Museum and people would read about them in the magazines and have posters of them on the wall.

Then I got further in school and discovered I was shit at science. See ya, palaeontology. Dream over.

How about you?

 

 

[air_raid]

What I wanted to be was usually in direct relation to what I was playing with at the time. So, I wanted to be a train driver at first. Then a footballer, then a wrestler, then the Spice Girls' tour manager.

[Gus Mears]

I wanted to be a Vicar for a number of years before ceasing to be religious got in the way. 

 

[SuperBacon]

When I was very, very young I wanted to be a pilot, until I was told I was colourblind and that I couldn't be a pilot (I've never actually looked into whether this is true in later life).

Then, from 6 to 14-ish, it was football player. That's all I was bothered about.

Even planned my career. Start at Brentford, who I played for and grew up with, then move to Spurs, win the fucking lot, then go back to Brentford and help them as local-boy-done-good to achieve promotion to top flight.

I was an OK player, never had any pace or stamina, but played for my county for a few years, then had a few trials (not a brag, this isn't hard), and was CRUSHED by a coach at Fulham who told my Dad in front of me: "He's too slow, too short(??? I'm 5'11) and he'll never make it" 

That fucked me. I immediately stopped playing and despised football for a long time. I still half jokingly reckon I could've made Conference/League Two level.

Then it was films. Anything to do with films, but most likely writing.

Then I got a job. So no, I haven't achieved any of them, but the writing is still something that I want to do. My dream job now (maybe another thread) is run my own record label.

[ColinBollocks]

Usual boring shite. Football player, actor and rock god. I'm not great at all three.

Thought of becoming a wrestler back in the early 00s, but the whole being in constant pain and everyone of them seeming like miserable tossers got in the way.

A mate keeps trying to get me to join his band, but I have about the worst stage fright possible. Plus, while very talented people, they play boring rawk.

When I was really young I also had this weird dream of owning some taxi company in some random shitty town like Leven. Mainly because after the football, on a pissing Saturday, my Dad would go in and book us a taxi home. The man behind the desk spending his time in a warm shop, watching the telly. What a life, I thought.

[Chest Rockwell]

I wanted to be a comic book artist. Then a musician. Needless to say I am neither. I don't even draw or paint anymore - studying art really killed my passion for years and then I never really got back into it. I do still occasionally make music, but I haven't performed live in forever (aside from DJing a couple weddings).

I should add that studying art also made me never want to do anything I liked for a living in case it ruined out for me so it also killed the notion of pursuing music. Which was a good thing because that's a miserable existence and I wouldn't have enjoyed it.

[Carbomb]

I wanted to be an adventurer, a swash-buckling international man of mystery who'd explore unknown parts of the world and do a bit of bounty- and treasure-hunting on the side to make money.

Then I realised I should probably just stick to living vicariously through movies, games and comics - much less work, and much safer.

[Guest]

A spaceman. 😎

Until I heard about black holes. 😲

[Accident Prone]

I wanted to be an actor until I developed a bit of a speech impediment.

Then I wanted to be a writer until I realised I actually hate reading/writing fiction.

Then I wanted to be involved in TV/film, but threw away my uni course to travel around Wales for three years in order to try and start a new life with my partner at the time. When that all inevitably broke down I just forgot about all my career aspirations and buried them deep down.

That's been it since then. I've been incredibly lethargic about advancing myself and chasing my dreams ever since. I just turned 30 in April and I'm extremely disappointed (and occasionally depressed) about how my professional life has turned out. Now is hardly the time to be trying taking massive risks so I'm lumped with just slowly making my way through whatever office or environment I land in. Fingers crossed I'll be able to teach my future kids about where I royally fucked up.

[Sphinx]

13 minutes ago, Accident Prone said:

I just turned 30 in April and I'm extremely disappointed (and occasionally depressed) about how my professional life has turned out. Now is hardly the time to be trying taking massive risks so I'm lumped with just slowly making my way through whatever office or environment I land in.

If it's just the age then there's no reason not to take a risk.

[Carbomb]

17 minutes ago, Accident Prone said:

I wanted to be an actor until I developed a bit of a speech impediment.

Then I wanted to be a writer until I realised I actually hate reading/writing fiction.

Then I wanted to be involved in TV/film, but threw away my uni course to travel around Wales for three years in order to try and start a new life with my partner at the time. When that all inevitably broke down I just forgot about all my career aspirations and buried them deep down.

That's been it since then. I've been incredibly lethargic about advancing myself and chasing my dreams ever since. I just turned 30 in April and I'm extremely disappointed (and occasionally depressed) about how my professional life has turned out. Now is hardly the time to be trying taking massive risks so I'm lumped with just slowly making my way through whatever office or environment I land in. Fingers crossed I'll be able to teach my future kids about where I royally fucked up.

Agreed with @Sphinx. 30 is far from too old to get started in a new career. One of my best friends is a news producer with the BBC - he only got started in journalism, with almost no experience in that field, having previously been predominantly in recruitment, when he was 34.

I know we're living in unsettled and uncertain times, but I strongly recommend having a serious think. And listen to the below skit for a bit of motivation:

 

[Chest Rockwell]

21 minutes ago, Accident Prone said:

Now is hardly the time to be trying taking massive risks

Why not?

[Astro Hollywood]

As a kid, I wanted to be a Ghostbuster. As an adult, a writer. That is what I do now, with almost the entirety of my waking life, but I make fuck all from it. What I really wanted to be was a writer with a nice house, not drowning in debt and able to enjoy life, but have since realised the Ghostbuster thing was more realistic.

Follow your dream, kids, just know you'll eventually end up in an unmarked pauper's grave.

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, Accident Prone said:

Now is hardly the time to be trying taking massive risks

 

9 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Why not?

Have you seen his name?

[BomberPat]

I think probably paleontologist or archaeologist as well - I think I assumed they were basically the same job. Got all the magazines, built the skeletons, learned the names, obsessed over them. I suppose what put me off it was the steady realisation that people I knew didn't really do jobs like that, and that nobody at school was telling me how to become a paleontologist. 

I gradually moved away from dinosaurs and more towards being into animals in general, and the supernatural and anomalous, so decided I wanted to be a zookeeper, though probably also assumed that ghost train stations and spontaneous human combustion would end up playing a much larger part in my adult life than they have to date. The combination of being not particularly good at science, my last secondary school hammering all ambition out of me, and moving towards figuring I'd be a music journalist all made me think that "zookeeper" wasn't an option.

In primary school I also thought I'd be a writer. My reading was reasonably advanced for my age, and I used to write a lot - though, having chiefly read The Hobbit, Fighting Fantasy, Discworld, and an Encyclopedia of Myths & Legends I used to pore over that was exhaustive in detail but offered absolutely no insight or interpretation (so every story was "X happened, then Y, then Z"), most of what I wrote was very much in that mold; fantasy heroes trekking from one generic monster battle to the next. I wanted to be a video game designer at some point, back when I assumed that was obviously the most fun job in the world.

 

I did end up working in a zoo, for about three years, though in accounts, administration and fundraising, so my zookeeping activities were minimal at best. I've done plenty of writing, including a fair bit of the music journalism teenage me assumed would be my future, but never enough to make money off it.