# What did you want to be when you grew up?



## Flower (Sep 19, 2018)

And did you achieve it?

I wanted to be a firefighter, help save lives and wear a uniform. I remember when I got diabetes in the 70's being told I wouldn't be able to be a firefighter but there would be lots of other exciting opportunities for me.

My other wish was to be a checkout operator after seeing bar codes on 'Tomorrows World' and thinking how amazing it would be to scan a product and the till to know what it was. I was reminded of this today when in a shop that sells things for a £ and being able to scan my own items. I love the beep and the till knowing  - I know! I know! -  I'm an adult!  

So 1 out of 2 ,sort of  for me


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## CathyB (Sep 19, 2018)

I wanted to join the army, my father was a soldier so it was the only life I knew, my parents wouldn’t have any of it  I was to be a nurse.....so that was why I did.  Changed direction in my 30s to specialise in dementia care and finally found my niche, never looked back


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## Bloden (Sep 19, 2018)

Great question @Flower.

I wanted to marry my cousin, Adam, and be a farmer’s wife (he wanted to be a farmer). If that didn’t work out, I was going to be a princess. Hahahaha...


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## Flower (Sep 19, 2018)

Princess Bloden- I love it!


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## chaoticcar (Sep 19, 2018)

I just wanted to grow up .I am still 5ft 0 and under 7stone 
 Carol  emoji gone missing again


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## Lucy Honeychurch (Sep 19, 2018)

I wanted to be a librarian so I could stamp the books


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## Carolg (Sep 19, 2018)

I read the bunty  comic(I think) and wanted to be a ballerina...didn’t even do dance lessons. The dream didn’t last long, and I don’t have a dance bone in my body


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## Northerner (Sep 19, 2018)

I wanted to be an author! I distinctly remember saying it when I was about 6. When I was 8 I wrote a book called 'The Super Six', nicking the ideas of Enid Blyton!  I also wrote humorous poetry from an early age, something I still do  When I was 10 I wrote a comic that I sold for a penny to my school friends, and also some booklets about nature and mysteries, like the Loch Ness Monster, which got put on the classroom walls  I'd still like to be an author one day, perhaps when I grow up


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## chaoticcar (Sep 19, 2018)

I wrote a play for my class at school when I was 10 I never wrote any thing else except letters to my husband then boyfriend when I was 19 Have I missed my vocation ?!!
  Carol


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## Flower (Sep 19, 2018)

Thanks everyone for making me chuckle 



Lucy Honeychurch said:


> I wanted to be a librarian so I could stamp the books



I loved that stamp too, the way it clunked down with the date  you could have stamped some of Northerners works


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## ukjohn (Sep 19, 2018)

*I wanted to be an engine driver on the old steam train. I started as an engine cleaner and passed my exams to become a fireman on the footplate of the trains, never reached my goal of becoming a driver because of the steam being replaced with diesel engines, so I left the GWR.*


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## Martin Canty (Sep 19, 2018)

I wanted to be a Vet.... Never made it, became a Computer Programmer instead

I also wanted to do Mountain Rescue, that one I did succeed in achieving, being a SAR team member for the last 13 years here in California... Along the way I became a Volunteer Fire Fighter for about 8 years until they disbanded the program.


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## Lanny (Sep 19, 2018)

I wanted to be an astronaut see Earth from space & the stars! If I win the lottery, I may still get into space with the current, civilian, space race: I can dream!


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## Flower (Sep 19, 2018)

Lanny said:


> I wanted to be an astronaut see Earth from space & the stars!



With your trampolining Lanny you're half way there!


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## travellor (Sep 19, 2018)

I wanted to be a overhead wire engineer in the highlands
Didn't do it!


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## eggyg (Sep 19, 2018)

From a very young age I wanted  to be a teacher, only because I wanted a big cupboard full of stationery. I used to have dreams of opening that elusive cupboard and being faced with exercise books and pens and pencils! Oh I am drooling! And no, I didn’t achieve it as I realised there was a bit more to teaching than that!


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## Eddy Edson (Sep 19, 2018)

I wanted to be an engineer, or anything where you had to have a crew-cut.  I really wanted a crew-cut. Kids are weird 

But I totally get the stationery cupboard thing - reading that made me remember what a Magic Cave the cupboard at primary school was.

EDIT: My crew-cut dream came to nothing; my parents never let me get one. In time I forgave. I did become a software engineer for a while, but it was boring.


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## mikeyB (Sep 19, 2018)

Because of my upbringing, I wanted to be Pope. What happened to that idea was hormones, and seeing Dr Kildare being such a hit with the ladies, I decided doctoring was for me. 

That worked. So did atheism, and the knowledge that you don’t have to believe in a god to be a good person.

And you won’t go to hell for seducing nurses.


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## Ljc (Sep 20, 2018)

TBH I don’t think I’ve quite grown up yet 
I had a few vague ideas, wanting to work with animals was one, I did eventually  apply to battersey dog  and cats home but sadly they had a long waiting list. Police woman was another , at the cop shop I was told try again when I was  older, I did my level 13 year old best to do a dignified exit .
After spending most of my teenage years in a much hated bottle green uniform the last thing I ever wanted to do was wear a uniform . I spent   a little time as a shop assistant in a department store, then a couple of years as a cashier in Lipton’s supermarket,  In 1971 I decided to move on and donned another uniform  at least it wasn’t bottle green, it was blue with a starched white apron, white cuffs, starched white belt and a frilly starched white hat and no I wasn’t a nurse !  Though the uniform changed over the years I wore the blue for just under 40 years.
If you’ve ever donated blood in SE/SW London, Kent, Surrey or Sussex you might have met me.


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## Carolg (Sep 20, 2018)

mikeyB said:


> Because of my upbringing, I wanted to be Pope. What happened to that idea was hormones, and seeing Dr Kildare being such a hit with the ladies, I decided doctoring was for me.
> 
> That worked. So did atheism, and the knowledge that you don’t have to believe in a god to be a good person.
> 
> And you won’t go to hell for seducing nurses.


Neither will nurses for feeding young doctors toast and tea


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## Carolg (Sep 20, 2018)

Ljc said:


> TBH I don’t think I’ve quite grown up yet
> I had a few vague ideas, wanting to work with animals was one, I did eventually  apply to battersey dog  and cats home but sadly they had a long waiting list. Police woman was another , at the cop shop I was told try again when I was  older, I did my level 13 year old best to do a dignified exit .
> After spending most of my teenage years in a much hated bottle green uniform the last thing I ever wanted to do was wear a uniform . I spent   a little time as a shop assistant in a department store, then a couple of years as a cashier in Lipton’s supermarket,  In 1971 I decided to move on and donned another uniform  at least it wasn’t bottle green, it was blue with a starched white apron, white cuffs, starched white belt and a frilly starched white hat and no I wasn’t a nurse !  Though the uniform changed over the years I wore the blue for just under 40 years.
> If you’ve ever donated blood in SE/SW London, Kent, Surrey or Sussex you might have met me.


Did you have the mother of pearl collar and belt studs as well


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## Robin (Sep 20, 2018)

Can't remember wanting to be anything in particular, but I do remember in top year Primary school the teacher asked us. Most of the girls said nurse, teacher or air hostess. All the boys said professional footballer. This was 1966, and we had just won the World Cup, mind you.


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## Stitch147 (Sep 20, 2018)

When I was younger i had strange things I wanted to be. Firstly I wanted to be a brain surgeon closely followed by wanting to be a mortuary assistant (I watched a lot of horror films growing up!). Then I wanted to go into nursing. Unfortunately when I left college i didn't get into nursing school so trained to be a car mechanic. Couldn't get a job doing that so started working for Transport for London.


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## missclb (Sep 20, 2018)

@Stitch147 – thanks to Charlene in Neighbours, I also wanted to be a car mechanic. At some point I wanted to be a long distance lorry driver, i thought that would be cool, until I learned that I would have to load and unload!! Never made it in either profession though – I'm a graphic designer.


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## Flower (Sep 20, 2018)

Stitch147 said:


> Firstly I wanted to be a brain surgeon closely followed by wanting to be a mortuary assistant



That's quite a mixture Stitch! That would cause a raised eyebrow at careers advice


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## HOBIE (Sep 23, 2018)

Great post ! I wanted to be a Artic driver all over the country & further. I love driving & seeing different places. Travel ?


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## AJLang (Sep 27, 2018)

A teacher - well I became a senior lecturer which I guess counts as a teacher. I also desperately wanted to study for a History degree and now I’m on my last two modules for year one


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 27, 2018)

At various times as a child or teenager I wanted to be an actor, a director, an author, a journalist, a proof-reader, or an interpreter.

I went off interpreting after I started learning German and discovered I'm just a Francophile, not a linguist. I then intended to do an English and Drama degree so I could have some form of theatre-related career, but I ended up doing English and European Thought & Literature instead.  Later on I tried again by doing a Text and Performance Studies MA and a Postgraduate Certificate in the Education of Adults with the intention of becoming a lecturer in acting ... but around that time I got ME and anything like acting/directing/lecturing was no longer feasible for me.

I've done a bit of journalism, if you count writing for things like the Action for ME magazine (unpaid).  I've done a bit of academic proof-reading (paid).  Like @Northerner, I've yet to become a published author, but there's still time!  I've also developed other interests so my more recent ambitions (for when I finally grow up) are to be a garden designer and/or plant photographer.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 27, 2018)

@Ljc - if you were a vampire phlebotomist in SE London/Kent area you may well know my Mum's sewing buddy - she was too!


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## Ljc (Sep 27, 2018)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> @Ljc - if you were a vampire phlebotomist in SE London/Kent area you may well know my Mum's sewing buddy - she was too!


What a small world. I worked for them jan 71 to 89 though we travelled around my base was in Tooting.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 29, 2018)

I'll try to find out when J worked for them - she is retired now, but is quite a bit younger than my Mum, so I'd guess it would have been about the same time as you, maybe a bit later.  I think she lives in Greenwich, but don't know where she was based when she was working.


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## HOBIE (Sep 30, 2018)

Have you ever thought, How do I live where I live, who you marry, What you do for a living. A lot of it is by chance.


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## Northerner (Sep 30, 2018)

HOBIE said:


> Have you ever thought, How do I live where I live, who you marry, What you do for a living. A lot of it is by chance.


I once went to a friend's wedding where there were two of his uncles - they were identical twins in their 40s (at the time) who had both been put up for adoption as babies and went to separate families. They rediscovered each other in their late 30s and were both in management at engineering firms and had both married very similar women and had two children   Spooky!


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## Emma Lowery (Oct 2, 2018)

When I was younger I was obsessed with maths. All you'd ever hear was that I wanted to go to Cambridge to study maths. As I grew up a little there was a crime programme on TV where the lead actor solved crimes through maths and I decided that's what i wanted to do...

I dropped out of sixth form where I was studying maths and further maths when my parents split up and promptly landed in the great world of property management where I have been for the last 9 years. Would never have guessed that as a child!


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## Pine Marten (Oct 2, 2018)

Lovely thread! I wanted to be a fireman for quite a while (no inclusive language firefighters in my day). Then for about a week I wanted to be a lawyer (why??). I was always interested in languages so also fancied being a translator. Then working backstage in a theatre or film studios (I did in fact do a theatre wardrobe course at art school once, and I now volunteer at my local theatre as an usher).

I ended up working in public libraries for about 3 years, then got a job in the British Museum, and later the British Library, where I stayed for ** years.


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## Northerner (Oct 2, 2018)

Pine Marten said:


> later the British Library, where I stayed for ** years.


Did you know someone called Caroline who worked there, will now be about 60 - she is a long-term member of the forum, but hasn't posted in a while.


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## Pine Marten (Oct 2, 2018)

Do you know what department she was in, Northerner? There were many many members of staff...


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## TheClockworkDodo (Oct 2, 2018)

Ljc said:


> What a small world. I worked for them jan 71 to 89 though we travelled around my base was in Tooting.


I consulted my Mum and she says her friend worked for path labs in various hospitals in the SE area rather than travelling around - Mum knows she worked at King's and at Greenwich, but not which others.  While we were on the subject, I mentioned to my Mum that you were born in Walworth though (you said on an earlier thread, in case you've forgotten!) and she wants to know which street (if you don't mind saying - or don't mind pm-ing me if you'd rather not post on public forum)?  She said to say she was born in Trafalgar Street   You might also know of Clubland at Walworth Methodist Church, where my parents met?


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## Northerner (Oct 2, 2018)

Pine Marten said:


> Do you know what department she was in, Northerner? There were many many members of staff...


Yes, I thought that might be the case!  I'm sorry, I don't recall if she ever mentioned it. It would be spooky if you worked together and didn't know!


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## Pine Marten (Oct 2, 2018)

Nope, never worked with a Caroline - unless it was an alias


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## Uller (Oct 2, 2018)

I wanted to be an astronaut when I was very young.... didn’t happen.
At school I was headed to be a cartographer, working for the OS making maps.... didn’t happen.
I did fancy being a sign language interpreter.... didn’t happen.
Unfortunately I sort of fell into being an engineer and CNC programmer, which I seem to be good at. Lucky eh?


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## HOBIE (Oct 3, 2018)

Uller said:


> I wanted to be an astronaut when I was very young.... didn’t happen.
> At school I was headed to be a cartographer, working for the OS making maps.... didn’t happen.
> I did fancy being a sign language interpreter.... didn’t happen.
> Unfortunately I sort of fell into being an engineer and CNC programmer, which I seem to be good at. Lucky eh?


I am often riding along in my van & wonder, What would you rather be or doing. I get a right buzz off the general public. Everyone's different !


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