What did you want to be

Was the bar exam super hard?  My dad's wife's son went to law school but never passed the bar after 4-5 times so now he does legal stuff, but not a lawyer. He's sensitive about that subject so I never asked him. 

I wanted to be an architect, but there was not college for that in my state and I would have had go out of state and pay out of state tuition which was like double back then. My parents said no way.
They wanted me to be a teacher, but I was not having any of that.

Thought about nursing, but our only nursing program was a small nursing school associated with our hospital and it had a waiting list a mile long. Needing to figure something out, I attended a college to become a Medical Assistant. Figured I could to that while waiting on a slot at the nursing college. I did complete that, but also found out that I was pretty woozy when it came to seeing a loved one in pain. About fainted watching them put stitches in my brother's eye area and when my boyfriend got his fingers caught in a printing press and they told me to go out there and see if I could see any fingers.
When I went to try to find a job as a Medical Assistant, I was often turned away because of no experience and was even told, we want a much older and mature woman. Ugg! They could ask age back in those days.

Microelectronics was booming at the time and we had several plants built here. They paid excellent with excellent benefits, so I started working at one of them. I then started college to get some type of electrical degree, but after 5 years, the industry collapsed and hundred were laid off.

Took assessment tests and they indicated I would be good with numbers, so I got my degree in accounting. Worked for our utility company until I retired as a supervisor over an administrative group that was responsible of developing and monitoring department budgets. I really liked my job. The supervising people was a challenge at times though. I had some very strong personalities that clashed with each other and had to mediate them often.

My grandson took architectural engineering in high school and I think I quickly learned I would have never been happy in that field, so my parents not wanting to pay out of state tuition was a blessing in disguise.

In elementary school I wanted to be an artist. In high school I wanted to be a meteorologist. I've always been fascinated by extreme weather, but science was not my strength.

I've taken several college classes but have never obtained a degree; just a Bookkeeping certificate. I worked in Accounting for the majority of my career.

About 15 years ago I took graphic design/marketing classes, and 10 years ago took web design classes. I thought about pivoting my career - I wanted to build websites for small, crafty businesses. I realized after a while that no one would want to hire a 40 year to build websites so I stuck with Accounting until I retired last year. I will say I really miss Excel.

When I was 5 or 6, I wanted to be a teacher because I liked taking the register.  10 years later I decided I could never, ever be a teacher because teens can be horrible. I never, ever have, and I have the ultimate respect for teachers. I didn't like myself nor any of my friends as teenagers. Thankfully we all grew up.

Re: fake blood/scars, I was a model for Cas-Sim, which is an organisation that does casualty simulation makeup for first aid and ambulance training. It was such fun, as you had to learn how to act certain conditions. I remember "having" an angina attack which was diagnosed very quickly, as well as being a burns victim (glue and Vaseline) and "having a stroke". Such fun.

Like you, I wanted to work in a shop and I did indeed work in my father's pharmacy with my parents. That was the best job I ever had. I wanted to work with computers and worked in IT. I wanted to be a nurse because my mum was a nurse but I couldn't, so I did first aid, complimentary health training, and finally ended up going full circle and working as a prescribing clerk. Funny how life goes, eh?

What did you end up working as, gar?

Oh gosh, I can't remember them all, LOL.

At one point I thought for sure I wanted to be an astronaut.

I also thought I wanted to write books.

And as a kid I thought for sure it would be fun to be the mom of about 20 kids.

Um, I am a mom, but certainly not to 20! The only books I've created are scrapbooks, though. And I haven't been to the moon yet, which was my whole goal in becoming an astronaut.

Turns out I'm okay with not meeting any of my childhood goals, though, thank goodness!

I was raised in the 70s, so my mom had drilled the “women can be anything” message into my head. When she asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up… “A duck!” 🦆🤣

My reasoning? I loved to swim, and thought it would also be really cool to fly. It is still a joke in my family to this day!

Spoiler alert: I did not turn into a duck.

Once I figured out that was not a viable option, I wanted to be (at times) an elementary school teacher, a medical examiner, or a high school math teacher. I got a BS in Mathematics, but ended up working in libraries while in undergrad and really liked it. I decided to abandon the idea of a Master’s in Education and went for my Master’s in Library and Information Science.

I’ve worked in various roles in my Public Library for over 30 years and have never had the same day twice. I still love it. I am the Supervisor of Technical Services, so I’m a cataloger and also cover the Reference Desk. I’m a nerd among nerds 😆

I wanted to be a veterinarian, then an illustrator, an author, a lawyer (still think I should have done it, would have had a ton of student loans though bc there was no money for law school), and more practically, a plumber 😁 until someone pointed out all the spiders in crawl spaces I'd have to deal with. Nope.

Anyway I found myself 22, having a baby, no life plan, working two jobs to pay the bills while my bf worked at a warehouse and attended night school to become a draftsman.

When I was hospitalized during my 7th month for gestational diabetes, I had the most wonderful nurse teach me about diabetes and how to manage my insulin, etc. She seemed so "together", smart and pretty and capable. I thought, I think I can do this too. And that's how I decided to become a nurse.

No one in my family has been in healthcare so it was completely out of the blue. I'm so glad for the path my life took because it's a great career, interesting and rarely boring, and one where your intelligence is valued and you can also make a difference in someone's life.

If I hadn't been that sort of lost mom-to-be with no plan I might never have ended up where I am today. My husband eventually became an engineer and everything we have, we did ourselves. We've always been proud of that.

Totally my hero!

I wanted to be a veterinarian until high school. Then an English teacher. Turned out to be an elementary school teacher. Good call. My kindergarten teacher said I was bossy on my report card and it might lead to problems later on in life. No, I just needed the right career.

I wanted to be a teacher, then a writer, then a librarian, then a nurse. I teach preschool now, so I guess I did become what I originally wanted to do.

I also wanted to be an archaeologist when I was a primary school kid in the 70s. A lot of kids wanted to be archaeologists, but like you, I have no idea where the idea came from!

I don't have any recollection about what I wanted to be when I was in high school. Whatever it was, I didn't get there - unless my ambition was to be a clerk at the only telco (at the time) in the country! 

When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a professional wrestler and a nurse, so I could patch myself up after the fights...lol. Given that I'm a shrimp and hate blood, neither of those worked out.

When I was older, I just knew I wanted to be a professional, dual-income no kid family. I didn't like kids.

Every single job I've ever had has been working with or for children. I have 3 kids who I love dearly and am the CEO for a large child welfare agency. I spend my days fighting for kids and feel so fortunate to get to do it, God has quite the sense of humor.

I wanted to be vet, but my mother told me that I wasn't good at math or science so I needed to think about being something else. Since I was a kid, I believed her. I also wanted to be a teacher, but I didn't know that until I was older and my mother didn't have that much influence over me any more. I ended up being a teacher and have been for 29 years! I am good at it, but is it my calling? I often wonder what would have happened if I had just stood up to my mother.