Over at crikey.com.au today, regular contributor Christian Kerr observes Treasurer Peter Costello's childhood dream of being an astronaut and invites readerly speculation on what occupations other senior political figures might have dreamed of, tucked up at night in their stripy jarmies when not a creature was stirring.
When I was a kid I wanted to be a vet. Then, being a bit apprehensive about large, non-cute animals, I eventually narrowed it down to the more focused field of marine biology, but that too had its down side; my healthy fear of stingrays, which abounded in the waters where I learned to swim, proved last year to be well-founded.
What did you want to be when you were a kid? Are you being it?
26 comments:
A vet. I guess I'm living part of the dream in close quarters with four cats.
Wonder Woman.
I'm pretty close cause at 33 I'm definitely a woman now, and... I do wonder an awful lot...
(BTW, enjoy your blog!)
Ship's captain.
A lawyer and an actor.
I was a lawyer, so I guess I sort of lived the dream. It wasn't particularly grand though... Now I just teach and research law instead - and it is way more fun.
Living close to an airfield and having a steady diet of 'Biggles' books, I wanted to be a pilot. That finished with the first flight in a small plane, the sickness, the sickness. I also get train and sea sick.
A singer.
Which I was, for 10 years.
An archaeologist, an astronomer, and a ballet dancer. Or just someone who gets to read books all day. Due to my complete lack of coordination, I settled on the last.
Me? Indiana Jones. Finessed this somewhat to archaeologist by the high school point (gender questions were an issue I realised quite early on), but discarded this by the end of high school in favour of Writer Of Some Sort. Given the vagueness of this outline, I have succeeded admirably.
An English teacher. I was a Serious Young Thing, and my migrant working class parents held teachers in high esteem. Thank god I'm not doing that.
I wanted to make books somehow, whether as a writer or... something. So yes, I guess I'm doing what I always wanted, but it seems to make less money than I thought it would (I wanted to be rich as well). Oh well, them's the breaks.
Heh - your doorbitch is sjwpav. You're training it well!
I wanted to be an archeologist until I 'realised' I couldn't be one in Australia because it wasn't very old. I now work with old books which suits me just fine.
Ooohhhh, dunno about that, din -- there's always here -- and many sites equally intriguing and almost as old. Or is that what you meant when you put quotation marks round 'realised'?
I used to lay in near wet damp blankets, listening to my crystal set, in the unlined sleepout dreaming that one day I'd be a commentor on other peoples blogs
I wanted to be a marine biologist too!
But I decided to be an artist.
But as you an see (if you visited my blog)
perhaps I am a marine biologist, sort of.
an amateur one, without the fancy title.
I wanted to design costumes for teh Ballet Russes and get about in a monocle and a coat with an astrakhan collar scattering cigar ash on everything (wtf is astrakhan anyway?)
I'm not doing it, but I do check the jobs of Artshub almost every day.
don't know about occupation, but I was fairly certain that when I was eighteen I would change my name to Joan.
Opps, I intended the quotes to be quotes of embarassment (she types feeling somewhat embarrassed). I managed to get through 13 years of schooling with only a semester of Australian history (and naturally it was white mans history). If I'd had any idea of the depth of history here I wouldn't have been so disheartened.
Heh. New word verification is thksbe. Honestly, you do have a very high standard of word verifications here.
In primary school, I wanted to be a sailor (under the influence of Swallows and Amazons) and a pilot (under the influence of Biggles.)
In high school I wanted to be a hippie/revolutionary and Joan Baez.
I never had much of an idea as to an actual occupation, which in retrospect is cause for regret.
Adelaide residents of sufficient vintage will remember when MTT buses had doors up the back as well as the front and midsection. They were cool looking buses, which is why I wanted to be a bus driver - but only on the route that went past my house.
When the newer, two-doors-only buses came along, I lost all interest.
I wanted to be a scientist having seen cool things of a science & engineering nature at the Museum.
Then I figured out that I'd have to learn my times tables to be a scientist, and I lost all interest. Cue the discussion of science & maths teaching in Australian schools.
Then I got to uni and realised that I could make museum exhibitions of cool things, rather than making the cool things themselves, and that is why I check artshub regularly for jobs.
What I've actually been paid for in the last few years is broadly 'organising'.
Enemy Combatant sez...
There's a photograph on the cover of Randy Newman's album, "Land of Dreams". He was six years old in a cowboy suit, squinting into the sun as his Mum snapped the Box Brownie. That was me too. First I wanted to be Gene Autry, then Hopalong Cassidy, until Roy Roger's allure became irresistible. When Roy rode to the rescue during a Saturday matinee at the Hoyt's art-deco Picture Show in Randwick, we'd stomp our feet and cheer madly. Ah, the Manichean certainties of childhood's dreams.
What remains is an existentialist cowboy who moseys most days, from porch to porch in cyberspace. On a good day it's cuppas and chats, on others....they set the cats upon one.
I always wanted to play the piano, & be able to sing! I did neither.
Then it was reality time, & nursing it was.....only to realise it wasnt.
Who ever dreams of becoming a publican... it happened to me.
I wanted to become a scientist. This fell through largely because my teachers/lecturers in English/English Literature were so much more inspiring than my science teachers. One of those teachers who led me away from my chosen path was...Kerryn Goldsworthy.
I'd been meaning to drop you a line about your influence on my life since I realised Pavlov's Cat's identity, but there doesn't seem to be an email address and I don't want to bore your readers. If you'd like to know more drop me a line at owenoutsider@hotmail.com
Wow -- I hope it turned out to be a good decision! Thanks for alerting me to the fact that the email address had somehow disappeared -- I think I've fixed it, so if you click on the link under the profile at the top of the blog's main page sidebar, where it says 'show my compete profile', that should take you to an email link.
I distinctly recall in prep that we were all asked what we wanted to be when we grew up and I said 'a mother' and they all laughed at me. I got that one.
Then I wanted to be 'a writer' (hmmm, somewhat), then 'in advertising' (no, thank god), then a psychologist (no, too much maths/science), then a journalist (yes, somewhat), then 'working with books' (yes). As a 21 year old new to Melbourne, I then recall with slight embarassment that I wanted to be 'the next Sophie Cunningham'. Which I am clearly not.
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