What Do You Want To Be When You Grown Up?

In the third grade (8 years old) for some unfathonable reason I told people I wanted to be a brain surgeon. This goal lasted until I realized in biology class - refusing to dissect a frog - that I couldn't stand the idea and certaintly not the action of cutting flesh and seeing blood. With that realization I gave that idea up for good. And yet as an adult I am a practicing psychoanalyst. Ironically, in point of fact I actually do perform a kind of brain surgery each day thoroughly loving what I do for a living.

when I was young I thought about teaching or conceling.Now that I have went back and finished high school. I am going to take conseling anything to help someone out.A lawyer sounds like a excellent job.

I wanted to be a veterinarian because of my love for animals. That dream lasted up until college science class and the realization that I would have to take more science courses than I knew possibly exsited (see, I don't like science). I dabbled with psychology (don't we all?), and ended up with a degree in communications & marketing. I currently work in business development.

I wanted to be a teacher, i gave it up after working in a nursery school for six months because the pay was awful!!

I now work in administration dealling with people who act like children when they don't get their own way!!!

When I was in the third grade I wanted to be a nurse, a perfectly respectable goal for a girl, but for some unknown reason my parents were dead set against it, even when I was eight. I still sometimes wish I'd done that. I would have been a very good nurse.

I wanted to be a news anchor/journalist

I always wanted to stay home with the kids but as I have gotten older I really wish I would have went into the military. The benefits are excellent and I would know that I was taking care of a lot of people,not just my family!

In the third grade I wanted to be a writer or a singer. I always was the one who was asked to write a poem for the class or sing the solo in the Christmas program...so far I have only done both as "hobbies" and have become an English/TAG/Communications teacher...I guess that counts as being a writer of sorts! ;-D

Hmmm... that's a tough one... I think in third grade I wanted to be an actor, but since then that faded in priority. For a while I just wanted to learn and do whatever I could so that someday I could choose whatever I wanted... I wanted to make a difference. So in highschool I decided I would go the route of the teacher... And my plans haven't changed much since then.

In the third grade I wanted to be what I became, the guy who takes the bets at the racetrack, I always thought that was the coolest job, to get paid to be at the track and bet horses. I'm a rep for a hearing aid mfg. now, and I use that job to travel to racetracks all over the US, been to 65 so far and counting. Life's good!

I also had a career goal of being a hobo, but I never achieved that....yet.

I am pretty sure I wanted to write. I think back then I wanted to be a librarian, too, so I could read all day, because I was sure that was what librarians did, lol...There have been enough changes in the world during my life that I don't think I could have imagined doing what I do now!

I wanted to own my own restaurant, and motel. I played "diner" all the time.Iwould take orders from my sister and pretend i'd make them,my house was in the bathroom where i used the tub as my bed,and the restaurant was called"My Own Diner".Iwanted that because of where the family would go on vacation i loved the place we stayed and when i was 15 ended up there,they family took me in as a unoffical foster kid,so i worked in the restaurant learned the motel trade and when i was older i did own my own motel,but still not my restaurant,but i worked in that field and so have my kids and we will someday own one,i just hope it's sooner than later

I wanted to be a "flight attendent" and see the world! I've done a bit of traveling but, haven't seen the world...they say when you get older you enter your second childhood, maybe this time I can set some different goals? LOL!!

I wanted to be several things. A lawyer, writer, librarian, photographer for National Geographic or a writer for Rolling Stone, singer, astronomer, marine biologist, disc jockey, fashion designer, artist. LOL

I have been a disc jockey/news caster, production manager at a silk screening company, office manager, administrative assistant, lab technician, medical biller, reporter and tax preparer. LOL Guess it's fun to have a variety of goals.

It's really impressive that all you lovely people had such lofty ambitions at age 8....when I was in 3rd grade, we had this chart pinned to the classroom wall...and everytime a student aced a test, the teacher used to add a gold star next to his/her name...it was usually a neck in neck race for top spot between me and this girl...and the sum total of my ambition was beating the pants off her...much later, I married the woman who's been my wife for 30 years...she, meanwhile, has been through 3 divorces and is currently in a lesbian relationship...I wonder if there's a moral in there somewhere

I wanted to be a lawyer. lol.

Great questions and food for thought! I wanted to be many different things, but always included "mom" on the list.

At least I got that one right.

I have no idea what I wanted when I was in 3rd grade, but as far back as I could remember I wanted to be a professional singer and/or a mom. I AM a mom, but not a "professional" singer. I do a lot of karaoke and I have sang with a country band, but only for fun! I will just settle with being an administrative assistant and a darn good one I might mention...lol

I can't remember what I wanted to be when I was 3 or 4 years old. For now, I just want to be a positive human being, that contributes in some small way, to the betterment of mankind.

When I was little I wanted to be a ballerina. About 3rd grade I decided I would be a teacher, which is exactly what I did. After teaching for a few years I added the goals for being a counselor and school administrator. I am blessed to have spent my life doing what I loved. I never saw myself as old and retired, much less a grandma....but I am right where I want to be, and loving every minute of it.

In third grade I wanted to be a pathologist/bacteriologist. I spent every waking hour with my eyeball glued to my microscope's eyepiece.
Eventually I grew up to become a vagabond musician.
Now, I want to be Peter Pan.

I wanted to be a teacher, and be a mommy and get married, typical girl stuff

I wanted to be a singer. Now that I'm older, it's just not that simple. I don't want to be famous. And, I don't want to sell myself. If I was a singer I would want all creative control. I want to share from my heart and for free. I do my best at that every day of my life.

My most dramatic memory is that we (our friends, my brother and I) were going to go to British Columbia and capture Bigfoot! I used to draw a lot of "scientific machines," so science was a major interest. We also studied honey bees -- so I'm still looking to become a free-lance pest control expert. I've had so many interests, it's just finding the time to do them all that's the problem. Like Steve Winwood said, "I'm the same boy I used to be!"

I am amazed that you can all remember what you wanted to be in the third grade. I remember that the summer before the third grade, my mother divorced my dad and we moved away from him (he was physically abusive to her) Shortly after the divorce was final, she remarried my step-dad who had an entirely different parenting philosophy than we had ever dealt with. He was very strict and our lives had changed completely.
All I wanted in the third grade was some sense of normal back in my life.

in third grade was when i began writing. i've always wanted to be a writer, but somewhere along the way i became more pragmatic. since i figured writing wasn't going to support me for a long, long time-- if ever-- i was going to have to do something else. teaching english seemed like a good fit-- and i have loved it ever since.

maybe someday i'll be a real writer.

I was torn between a number of things way back then. I wanted to be a librarian because I loved to read, or a teacher so I could do an important job, or a vet till I found out you also had to be able to put animals down. I love animals too much and get so attached to them. Then I always wanted to be a mom and stay home with my children. Well eventually I did become a mom, despite a lot of difficulties, and I got married young, and never did go back to school to finish my education. Something I've always regreted, although I have loved being a mom....well up until the teenage years. I also loved writing stories, but that also got pushed aside so now it's something I'm trying to get back into.

I had many dreams when I was a kid, but didn't get to realize them due to the death of my mother when I was 19 and my dad's death when I was 24. These events forced me to become practical and find work that was stable - with a regular salary, a pension, health and dental benefits and so forth. I had to do this because I had to survive and was basically on my own. I have older siblings (much older than I am) but they had their own lives and families to contend with, so it really was up to me to support myself.

As a little girl there were 3 things I wanted to be. The main one was that I wanted to be an artist like my father. He was a renowned sculptor in New York and I thought his life was tremendously interesting. I modeled myself after him and decided to pursue a career path rather than marriage and home, although I am happily married for the first time to my second husband. I have no kids. Dad encouraged me to go to college and find a career, and I listened. He was a professor at two New York Colleges by day (and the art department Chairman at one) and in his private life he created magical, mysterious and intense sculptures, paintings and drawings. I could sit for hours and watch him do this. His drawings were so life like I was truly in awe.

I was also very interested in archaeology and dance. I loved fossils of all kinds, as much as l loved exploring ancient ruins in Italy. (One goal of mine is to visit the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum in Southern Italy). We had the opportunity to travel a lot when I was young because of dad's work, so by the time I was 15 I had been to Europe 3 times. I lived in Rome, Italy when I was 8 for a year, and we spent one summer in Lacoste, France when I was 15 because his primary place of employment had a summer program there. I climbed the limestone quarries and collected fossilized shells, plants, sea life and insects - but art was still my calling. I wanted to be a painter or an illustrator.

As for dance, I have always had a flexible body and was a kid (and woman, now obviously) who lived in her body. I loved to move and could easily pick up the dance steps when I watched shows like Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, etc. But art still pulled at me.

In college I studied art and worked in the studio constantly. I loved the smell of paint and didn't mind getting my hands dirty. The process of creating was a joy and other than dancing, painting really was the only thing that put me into a true state of peace and creative flow. I could start painting at 5 at night and stop at 4:00 a.m., unaware so much time had passed.

But life interferred and these things were put on the back burner. I am a successful and accomplished event planner at a college in New York, and I like what I do, but it is not my heart or my soul. One day, I hope to paint again or go on an archaeological dig.

When I was in the third grade, I wanted to be an artist and writer. Well, I made it, even if I am starving writer/photographer/artist.

I haven't grown up yet.lol In the third grade I wanted to be a nurse. I am a stay at home mom. I guess you could say I am a nurse.

I'm still the same. In third grade I wanted to be more outgoing, stop taking mean comments so seriously, and I wanted to be a singer. In fact, come to think of it, I'm not sure I've matured at all since then..

At 25 I had 2 kids, a house, a dog, and a full time job. Trust me, it is better not to have the kids too young, because you have to get yourself organized first. I'm 50 now, or will be in November, and I did what I wanted to do - raised 2 kids and now I own a farm...

Hang in there. You don't have to decide anything right away. To achieve your goals, you only need to focus. Remember, you can remember yesterday and plan for tomorrow, but you only live today...