Ever since I can remember, I always wanted to grow up and be a wife and a mom.
However, one can’t exactly bank on that, because who can guarantee marriage? Or children, for that matter?
So in terms of a career, I first thought that I wanted to be a music major (either in piano or organ).
However, when I was a teenager I developed some overuse injuries in my hands and wrists from practicing piano and it became obvious that I would not be able to make it through the hours upon hours of practice that would be required at college.
I was pretty interested in nutrition at the time, so I decided that I’d become a dietician instead.
But I met Mr. FG while I was in college, we got married a year later, and then the babies started coming two years after that.
I taught piano lessons for many of those years, and also worked at church as a pianist.
And since 2008, I’ve worked as a blogger (though I don’t think I actually earned anything in 2008. Ha.)
So I never did get the two degrees I was considering, but I’ve always been employed, and I can definitely put a checkmark next to the “wife and mom” job I’d hoped for.
Honestly, neither of those degrees is what I’d really want right now anyway, so I’m glad I didn’t get them. Now I get to choose something else entirely to do once my kids graduate from high school!
Nothing that would have worked with my actual personality. When I was young, I wanted to be a pilot like my dad. When I started college, I was an English and education major, thinking I might be a teacher. (Dropped the education part and just got an English degree.) Later in college, I considered going to law school. But instead I worked in politics for about a year after graduating, moved to New York and married a man who actually went to law school. Which made me glad I never did.
And now, despite not really ever wanting to work in a school, that’s what I do. Life sure is fun and surprising.
What didn’t I want to be might be a better question. Music and nursing would rank right up there, ha.
Teacher. Grain harvester, like my parents. Copy editor, until I found out how much we don’t make, then civil engineer. Soil scientist. Volcanologist. Home designer. Public-spaces architect. Welder. Mechanic. College math teacher. Grain harvester again.
Upshot, I’m an editor and designer. We don’t make much, a fact unchanged from the career booklets in high school. If I could do an architecture degree where I live, I might try to do that, but I can’t. At least I can work at home (convenient because of covid, but have been doing so for eight years).
Oh, I did skip law. That would have been after civil engineer. For a while I wrote sample questions and answer rationales for an LSAT prep course, and dang, reading comprehension is still not my strong point.
I wanted to be so many different things when I was a kid – a cowboy, a writer, an astronaut, a painter, an Air Force pilot! Quite a range there – LOL!
You have to understand that I was a kid in the 60s, so I wanted to do things girls just didn’t/couldn’t do.
I ended up with a degree in Chemistry, and when I graduated, people would ask me whether I was going to teach. When I’d say no, I wanted to work in a lab, the standard response was, “CAN you do that?” (emphasis added).
Anyway, I worked in a lab for 10 years, then got a position as an environmental manager. I did that for 30 years. Now I’m retired and working at my writing and painting! So don’t completely abandon those childhood dreams!
The first thing I wanted to be was a nurse. Others– dj, insurance agent, doctor.
I majored in English and minored in education. I taught 8th grade for 5 years before I landed in my dream job– wife and mom. I didn’t know I also wanted to be a homeschool teacher.
I always wanted to be a teacher. What I wanted to teach changed many times.
I wanted to be a sniper. My parents lived through the Nazi era and my father always talked so admiringly about the men who shot Nazis so they could not kill Jews, so I thought it was a noble profession. I think I was about eight when the nuns asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up and I told the entire class my career goal. I think the nun must have run for the phone to call my father. That night my father had a long talk with me about why I could not be a sniper. He told me that since I had really bad eyesight I would be lousy at it anyway. He said I loved to argue so much that I should become a lawyer and I could use the law to stop any American Nazis I might come across. So, I decided I would be a lawyer and never veered from that. I ended up doing something different after a few years but my legal education opened a lot of doors for me. My husband used to call me a licensed junk yard dog because I could get so fierce.
I love this story.
I always wanted to be a mom. I have 5 kids. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in in college. Teaching or nursing? Then I learned of speech pathology. You can work in schools or the medical field so it combines both and it’s way more flexible hours than a teacher or nurse. Some years when I’ve had babies I’ve literally worked one hour a week!
But I love to cook and I often rush I went to chef school. That may be my retirement fun job!
I wanted to be an “airline stewardess” as we called them, then, in the sixties, to travel the world and help people. I read a lot of books about them, like the Vicki Barr series, which probably weren’t too realistic!
I took an aptitude test in high school, in the seventies, which advised me to become a telephone operator!!
When I actually had to apply to colleges, I was working after high school in the hospital kitchen, so I chose dietetics/nutrition, because by then I wasn’t sure at all, but it made adults happy to hear it, especially the dietitians I worked with. Ahem- they were very clear that it was spelled with two Ts! “Dietitian” was a highly-regarded career. “There is no such word as dietician with a “c”! Good thing that didn’t work out, because it seems to take all the fun and joy out of cooking and eating! What actually happened, career-wise, is COMPLETELY different from all of the above!
So now I’m curious…what did you end up doing for a job?
I always wanted to be an actor, a singer or a dancer (Solid Gold dancer, to be precise, ha!). I went as far as auditioning for the Fine Arts program in acting after high school but I didn’t get in. I instead went into Education to become a French Immersion teacher and now I get to be an actor every day. The students appreciate my animated delivery and I appreciate my captive audience! : ) Win Win! And I get a pension : ) Love, love, love teaching. So glad to be back in the classroom!