What did you want to be when/if you grew up and how close are you now?

[JTsyo]

Aeronautical engineer => Mechanical Engineer

 

[olds]

I grew up during the space race. I wanted to be an astronaut. I have mooned people.

 

[Linflas]

Grade school I wanted nothing more than to be a railroad engineer after being a pilot was nixed by becoming nearsighted in 4th grade. By high school I really had no clue what I wanted to do, the most attractive job to me at that time was to be a National Park Ranger. I ended up working on avionics in the Navy for 4 years and knew that unless I could actually be a part of the flight crew I really wanted nothing to do with aviation once I got out. Since flight engineers were increasingly becoming a thing of the past that was pretty much out of the question. I ended up majoring in Geology in college with the idea of going out and working in oil fields after graduating. When I graduated we were in the middle of a domestic oil bust so I ended up working in IT and have been doing it ever since.

 

[Theb]

I wanted to be awesome.

So far, so good.

 

[ScoobMaster]

I wanted to be a RACE CAR DRIVER!

Luckily, I got to do that as a kid:

I raced for 7 seasons from 9-15 years of age (finished 2nd at the NYS Microd championship race at the NY State Fair once).

Now I am just a boring network administrator.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I wanted to be a veterinarian. As I got closer to college, I knew the schooling required wasn't for me. I became a husbandry biologist instead. Eventually I decided to change directions and went into medical research. Now I'm the sysadmin for a lab.

I miss it quite a bit, but the pay can't even begin to compare.

 

[rasczak]

a Pilot or a Scientist. Not even close to either one and probably never will be.

 

[unxpurg8d]

ScoobMaster, that picture is just awesome.


I wanted to fly helicopters but am horribly near-sighted. Then I wanted to be a lawyer, but for some reason they make you go to school for it. My friend and I were going to open a house of ill-repute but we never did make it to Nevada...

Went in the Army and did a lot of really fun stuff. Now I'm a glorified babysitter for grownups who get paid twice what I do, but oddly I still enjoy it. Just definitely not what I thought I'd be doing all those years ago!



By the way, pretty spiffy that the 11 year old thread is still available! Although I'm not sure reading it gave me a warm fuzzy since I now realize that I've gone around in a giant circle in 11 years. And my tail isn't as cute to chase as it once was.

 

[LordMorpheus]

I wanted to build awesome robots, and I'm in grad school, working towards a Ph. D. and playing with awesome robots.

So far, so good.

 

[nanette1985]

I wanted to be a ballerina like most little girls. Rheumatoid arthritis put a stop to that. Then I wanted to be a musician, and I was. Woo-hoo, awesome! I still am but not for a living.

I never wanted to be a computer programmer since that barely existed when I was little - but I became one, and loved it. I also never thought about taking things apart/putting them back together as a living, though I loved it, and then discovered you can get paid for that. Yes! I also never thought about going into business, but I discovered that and also loved it.

 

[BoberFett]

"Growing up" is overrated. I wish I had gone the musician route instead of IT. The executive career path I've been on pays better, but musician is far more fun. I'm slowly changing my direction.

Oh, and I guess as a direct answer to the question, I started out as a kid wanting to be a pilot, and a later a cop. I turned down a scholarship for an aviation program, which was really stupid of me, and joined the Army instead. At that point I was leaning toward cop, and being in the Army made me realize how much I hated authority so that career idea was out the window. That's when I got into IT.

 

[FallenHero]

Went in this order...

Fireman, Dr, Lawyer, Cop

Became a cop. Pretty happy with it.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I wanted to be a doctor since I was about 6. I'm 20 now, and I'm in 3rd year Med school. I'd say I'm doing pretty well.

 

[Imp]

Cop or soldier.

Went the engineer route. Explored the rear-echelon soldier, still I may be too blind to join. That and I realized that I love playing with money (financials) and like to get to work at 10am without getting arrested.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

I wanted to be a gynecologist. I ended a up a taste tester.

Do you make bread out of the yeast, then do a taste test?

 

[unxpurg8d]

BoberFett, understand what you mean. Sometimes less really IS more.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

I wanted to be a neurosurgeon. Somewhere along the line I realized I hate biology and chemistry. I ended up an electrical engineer/project manager/BSer.

 

[MiniDoom]

wanted to do something IT related. now i wish i could go back 25 years and tell myself what a stupid idea that was.

 

[BoomerD]

Emperor of the world...and hell, I don't even run my own house...

 

[alfa147x]

Photographer

 

[unxpurg8d]

wanted to do something IT related. now i wish i could go back 25 years and tell myself what a stupid idea that was.

Thanks, now I have lines from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure running through my head!

 

[MiniDoom]

Thanks, now I have lines from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure running through my head!

sorry, unfortunately i was being serious.