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What did you want to be?

I remember, the first thing I ever remember wanting to be was when I was 4, I wanted to be a member of Robin Hood's Merry Men. Kind of a weird thing for a 4 year old girl to want to be, but I thought it would be extremely amazing.

Weirdly enough, when I was little, I wanted to be a writer. Some short story I wrote in elementary school won an award and I really loved writing fiction even when I was young. My (typical Asian) parents basically beat that out of me as I grew up. "You can be whatever you want to be: a dentist or a doctor!" Ha. I changed dreams a lot as a kid and when I got older, I wandered around and around, changing degrees multiple times and going through all sorts of painful experiences... All because I couldn't grow a backbone and prioritize what was most important to me.

I finally accepted that I'd never love science or a medical career as much as my parents would like me to--and it's my life. So now I'm writing and back to doing what I've always wanted to. o.o I guess that makes me pretty lucky... It's hard sometimes, but I can say now that I really love what I'm doing and I'm the happiest I've ever been, so I suppose that makes it all worth it!

/cheesy

Exactly what I am doing today, being a crazy man flying around in a plane saving the day while using his spare time to create a book series that will help him achieve world domination. I am proof that sometimes childhood dreams do come true despite the fact that I lack any sort of talent at either of them.

In kindergarten, when they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, "A mom." My stay-at-home mother thought it was darling, but she didn't understand that I didn't necessarily mean "have children" but "stay at home". I remember thinking "I don't know enough about careers to pick one yet!" Meanwhile every other little girl in my class either wanted to be a gymnast, a paleontologist, or a marine biologist. It was the mid-1990s after all!

When I was in second grade or so I branched out and decided I would become a pop star whose stage name would be Sapphi Shine. My only album release consisted of one 5-minute cassette tape entitled Sapphi Shine Songs, but my schoolmates were treated to many free concerts at recess. Unfortunately the boy I had a crush on did not respond favorably.

A little while after that I decided to become the creator of a Pokemon-inspired franchise called Power Pets. I was certain it would catch on immediately and become an instant hit. I drew the characters in my folders and used every art project as an excuse to make more artwork of them. I attempted multiple "Power Pet Handbooks" and various other related publications. I dabbled briefly in manufacturing Power Pet cards but ultimately gave up because laminating them with clear packaging tape and gluing cut-outs to tin foil for holographics proved to be very tedious. When I wasn't feverishly drawing or staring into the sun with my eyes closed trying to come up with new ideas for characters, I walked around my yard planning the various episodes in my head while performing all the roles out loud and pulling my hair out absentmindedly. (Eventually my mother (who initially believed Pokemon was from the devil) relented and let me join in the fun everybody else was having so I didn't have a reason to make up my own anymore. )

Oh, and I think at one point I wanted to be a veterinarian... I loved watching Emergency Vets on Animal Planet (that was back when TV was actually educational - they actually filmed and showed the operations) but eventually I gave up on that idea because I didn't want to have to euthanize kitty cats for a living.

I had wanted to join the Army, for some reason, and at one point decided to run away to join the French Foreign Legion (sue me, I was like five at the time). 8| I'm a toxicology major now so...close enough? /not really

Sapphi wrote:Meanwhile every other little girl in my class either wanted to be a gymnast, a paleontologist, or a marine biologist. It was the mid-1990s after all!

Sounds like the 1980s as well. Paleontology is always a favorite of children. In fact, that's what I wanted to be when I grew up! I had dinosaur-themed everything, from bed sheets to pajamas to lamps. (Sadly, a good HALF of what I learned about dinosaurs as a child has been proven wrong. Heck, they were still standing T-Rex up on his tail when I was aspiring to dig for bones! And don't get me started on what they did to poor brontosaurus . . . . )

Then I wanted to be an archeologist, due in no small part, I imagine, to Dr. Jones. Interest faltered a bit when I learned my odds of facing constant death in that line of work were low. (Kids are weird.)

In Junior High, I went more specialized and decided I wanted to be an Egyptologist. I even learned to read New Kingdom hieroglyphs pretty well. The translations of scrolls and wall paintings just wasn't very interesting though. (Titles. So many titles. Keeper of the Grain, Lord of the House, Ruler of upper and Lower Egyp - Zzzzzzzzz). I still love Egyptology, my apartment is decorated in an Egyptian motif, with sand colored walls, Egyptian statues and vases, framed papyrus fragments and scrolls (all of it reproduction). I even have a little ancient Egyptian chess set sitting on my desk. But it is just a hobby now.

Instead I now do professionally what I did for fun all my life - draw pictures! Now I can DRAW awesome dinosaurs, PAINT ancient cities, and DESIGN Egyptian motifs. Yay! Artists just make a lot less than all those "-ologists". ::

When I was 5, I wanted to be a geologist. I used to go into our back lot to dig up quartz. I would then try to sell these to people XD I built up quite the rock collection.

When I was about 7 I wanted to be a chemist. I fell in love with learning about elements and compounds <3 I had a pretty kid friendly book that discussed it all and I got a chemist set with a microscope.

When I was 9 I wanted to be an archealogist. I loved history and mythology and I was actually set on it all the way to Year 9 in high school. That was until my friend/rival told me I could never make it and we got in an argument.

I then decided to be an artist, namely game concept design. I'm a graphic designer now and I work on games in my free time so I guess I got pretty close

Jeez, all of you guys' childhood selves (mostly) were so much more rational and realistic than mine, lol. OTL

I'll tell you what I absolutely NEVER wanted to be when I grew up: it was a tie between janitor and teacher. From an academic point of view I would love to be a teacher (friggin kids these days need to read more books) but from an emetophobic point of view, my nerves would be shot to pieces and I would die a very early death from the stress. ;_;

Hm... it went from lawyer, to video game designer, to biologist.

Let's see...

My father used to be in the military so I would spend as much time as I could with him when he was at home... and most of that time consisted of watching him play video games. I somehow developed this conception that, like my dad, it was my duty to protect everyone... with a butter knife. In Kindergarten, I told my teacher that I wanted to be Link from the Legend of Zelda and somehow I believed I wanted to be Link until I was in the third grade and learned about the space program... That's when I decided that I would be the first kid in space and discover a new planet.

In the 9th grade I wanted to be a neurologist because I wanted to understand what made a person a person... until I realized that I can't STAND the sight of blood. In the 10th grade I discovered philosophy (more specifically metaphysics) through my own research and that has been my passion ever since. Unfortunately, philosophy isn't the most practical subject so I settled on Computer Science... but I still love Philosophy. I would love to work with artificial intelligence <3

I'm sure I'm going to look back on this in about ten years and call my younger self an idiot...

Teacher -> Tree -> Bird -> Author -> Mandarin duck

On a more serious note, it was teacher at first. I thought I could shape the next generation into something better, something worth putting time and effort into! Somewhere along the line I lost faith in my peers (and more than just them) and found that I all but ran out of interesting books to read. From there on out a little thought sprang into my mind that I could be the one writing interesting books.

So there you have it. I'm rebelling against the typical Asian family who wants Bio Majors, and I've convinced myself I'd rather be a starving artist than a depressed doctor. Who knows? Maybe I'll be a teacher by daylight and a writer by moonlight *cue Sailor Moon theme song*

I think the first thing I wanted to be was a Waitress/Teacher, just like my grandma. xD She worked part time as a waitress, but sh was also a fourth grade teacher. She stopped being a waitress around the time I was four, I think. And then she didn't retire from teaching until three years ago.

Lawery > Pornstar > Pornstar > Hermit

A gundam pilot XD

As horrible as it sounds, I wanted to be the person driving an ice-cream truck...;;
As I got older I wanted to be a video game tester/creator. I'm actually pursuing a minor in game development now, so that dream might not be too far off. xD