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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Are You What You Planned To Be?
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Kaplan Corday
Shipmate
# 16119
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Posted
A former school friend, who from when I first knew him always wanted to be a meteorologist, did all the right courses, became one, and had a successful career in the field.
I have always envied people who know what they want to do and be, and who pursue their dream unswervingly.
The careers I considered over the years included underwater salvage diver, stonemason and psychologist, and almost accidentally I finished up as a history teacher.
Are you in the job you always foresaw?
And if you can’t afford to actually make a living from your lifelong passion, have you still achieved success and recognition outside work hours as a photographer, dancer, archaeologist, gardener, cricketer or whatever?
My daughter, for example, has found fulfillment as a published author, but there is no way that she could afford to give up her day job and live off the sales of her books.
If your childhood or adolescent self could have looked forward and seen what you are doing now, would they have said, “Yep, strictly according to plan”, or, “She became a WHAT? She finished up doing WHAT?”
Posts: 3355 | Registered: Jan 2011
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
I don't really know what my younger self wanted (I guess he didn't know it very well himself either), but I went to a high school reunion a couple of years ago. We didn't know it at the time, but it turns out that when we were in the same school, one of my classmates had made a list with predictions of what all of us would be in the future. She showed us the original list, it was fun to see it in her handwriting of a 16 year old girl.
After my name, she had written: 'boring computer programmer'. I guess I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere in my life.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Well, I have ended up retired so does that count?
I had a couple of careers but where I ended up didn't exist as a career when I was a lad so no, nothing went according to my expectations but I reckon it all went according to plan ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Galilit
Shipmate
# 16470
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Posted
Yep!
Funny you should ask.
Even funnier that I can answer.
At the age of 15 I had a blinding flash of a vision and it has all come true.
I was on my way home from school and I could not see how on earth I would get from the suburbs to what was described but I did.
It is repeatedly manifesting itself in unimportantly different ways as time goes by and insignificant circumstances change. (Unimportant and insignificant in terms of the original model described to me then, I mean)
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She who does Her Son's will in all things can rely on me to do Hers.
Posts: 624 | From: a Galilee far, far away | Registered: Jun 2011
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
We had this conversation in our house the othe r night: my husband was remarking that he had never anticipated as a young man that he would be where he is now (Quite Eminent in his field). I realised I had never thought of my future life in terms of a career at all (Thank you, 1950s female expectations!)
That I refused to be directed into teaching, and actually intended to be self-supporting, rather than marry, was quite bolshie for the time and place. I did stumble into a line of work - early office automation/systems/business intranets/websites - which changed as I went, and carried me places which hadn't existed in my younger days.
All very interesting, but not actually intended or even particularly well-suited.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
My earliest ambition was to be 'a shoe shop lady', which I've never fulfilled, even as a Saturday job.
As a young teenager (13 or so), I decided I wanted to be a lawyer, and here I am, so yes, but not exactly how I'd expected it to be.
M.
[ 24. April 2013, 06:46: Message edited by: M. ]
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
From age 7 I was going to be a nurse - my teddy got doctored to death, I can still smell the potions I covered him with.
Aged 18 I had my applications in to the teaching hospitals in London (I knew I wanted to live in London) when I woke up in the middle of the night, sat bolt upright and said "I can't do shift work".
I was right, no way could I have coped with shift work!
At our school girls were given three choices of career - nurse, teacher or secretary. Secretary was completely out - I can't sit still for two minutes together. So teacher it was.
In 1975 went to London to train and haven't looked back. I have loved it. teaching is a million things, but it's never boring!
[ 24. April 2013, 08:23: Message edited by: Boogie ]
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
No. I planned to live in the middle of nowhere as far away from London (sorry Boogie, but I utterly loathe and detest the place and can never get out of it quickly enough) as possible. I'm only about half as far away as I'd have liked and I'm not in the middle of nowhere.
As for career they didn't have computers the way we have them now when I were a lad so I couldn't have foreseen my career path. I wanted to be a brain surgeon so be thankful that we don't all get what we want.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Alaric the Goth
Shipmate
# 511
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Posted
Posted by K-LB quote:
I wanted to be a brain surgeon so be thankful that we don't all get what we want.
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
My equivalent is that, aged 14-15, I wanted to be an airline pilot!!! I seriously looked into it in the school careers library!
My default setting for years was wanting to be a paleontologist. I even chose my 'O'lvels with this in mind. But I couldn't do Geology (I even turned up, along with others, for the first lesson) as Mr O. had thoughtlessly retired. ![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif) Mrs M., the other Geology teacher (whom I kind of fancied ![[Biased]](wink.gif) ), only taught one side (the other side) of the timetable, alas.
Now I'm a flippin' Auditor!
[ 24. April 2013, 08:55: Message edited by: Alaric the Goth ]
Posts: 3322 | From: West Thriding | Registered: Jun 2001
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daisymay
St Elmo's Fire
# 1480
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Posted
I planned as a teacher to teach English and History and I did all sorts of teaching in Secondary schools (Religion, Looking after Children, Maths) and that seemed fine but suddenly I was told by the Head to teach LATIN also as I seemed to be the only teacher who'd done it a lot at university (St Andrews). I hadn't planned that but it was fine and all the students passed which made me feel fine.
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London
Flickr fotos
Posts: 11224 | From: London - originally Dundee, Blairgowrie etc... | Registered: Oct 2001
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
I wanted to be an English teacher but nobody from my council estate went to university and my parents expected me to start work as soon as I left school so that put paid to that. I did a youth training scheme working in a residential care home and then did traditional nurse training (hospital based not university based in those days). I loved nursing and was very good at it but I always knew my career ladder would never lead towards a management role. I specialised in Ophthalmology (moved to London for this!) and became a nurse practitioner, did practice development and finally became a lecturer in my field.
I teach health and social care with the Open University now and am about to finish my second degree and start my Masters in education - so much for not going to university
[ 24. April 2013, 09:10: Message edited by: Heavenly Anarchist ]
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
As a kid, growing up with All Creatures Great and Small on the haunted fishtank, I wanted to be a vet. I'm not really sure where it all want wrong but I ended up in biological science and my first job involved spending a lot of time making unfortunate critters ill. Truly the fates have a sick sense of humour. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Now I'm still in science, but feeling more and more that I have to get out or at least get into something more productive - academia just seems to be self-fulfilling from where I am, and there's only so long I can ride the roundabout. I love history, but there's no sensible way to make a living in it, and I've no desire to go anywhere near teaching admin or sales. So all in all I'm not what I planned to be and I seem doomed to remain at a lonely crossroads forever seeking the right exit.
Bugger.
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
Ah, I remember. When I was around 6, I wanted to be a cheetah. Still haven't figured that out.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Bob Two-Owls
Shipmate
# 9680
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Posted
I wanted to be a blacksmith but unfortunately the school I went to reserved metalwork for the violent or stupid. Being good at maths I was only allowed to choose computer programmer as a career choice. Even more unfortunately I am good at maths but really terrible at programming (I also loathe technology) so now I do bookkeeping work for minimum wage.
Maybe if I had punched a few teachers or failed my exams I might have been what I wanted.
Posts: 1262 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alaric the Goth:
My equivalent is that, aged 14-15, I wanted to be an airline pilot!!! I seriously looked into it in the school careers library!
So did my youngest son. The careers department brought in a variety of people to give talks and motivate the youngsters. One was from the RAF - Boogielet2 rushed home (aged 16) declaring he wanted to be a fighter pilot. Soon after that he went to the local forces careers place and they told him he needed 20/20 vision. He doesn't. So he gave up the idea and pursued a career in engineering.
Six years and a BEng degree later he couldn't get a job except on the shop floor, paying minimum wage.
So he went back to the piloting idea - this time in civil aviation. He became an Easyjet cadet. There were only eight on his course and four of them were ex-RAF pilots who had been made redundant just before they even finished their training!
Boogielet2 is now a fully fledged first officer for Easyjet and loving it. He flies to Lanzarote and back today
Here is a photo (he is 25, although he only looks 15!)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
I wanted to be a footballer or cricketer when I was young. The football went by the wayside pretty early, but I'm still managing to hold down a place in my cricket club's first team so that's something.
In my teens, inspired by various TV shows and the rapidly-growing understanding of genetics and suchlike I wanted to be a forensic scientist. Got as far as graduating in biochemistry before deciding I never wanted to see the inside of a laboratory ever again.
The other dream was to become part of a big rock band. The "big band" bit hasn't happened yet, but the "rock" part? That's in hand ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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Lots of Yay
Cookies enabled
# 2790
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Posted
Before starting school I recall wanting to own a pet shop (specifically the one near my house which ceased existing several years later).
In year 1 there was a "dress up as what you want to be when you grow up" day. I went as a travelling librarian.
In upper primary school I don't recall having any career aspirations.
In early high school I thought I might like to be a food technologist or a bassoonist.
In late high school I thought about medicine. Then decided not to do that. Then thought about a whole lot of sciencey things that I had no idea about (like bioinformatics! Whatever that is!). Then I thought I'd be a pharmacist so went to pharmacist school.
But now I'm a doctor. From the very start of medical school the "What do you want to be when you grow up?" game started again. So I thought I'd like to be a GP or a psychiatrist... and now I'm on the training program to be a paediatrician.
So er... I suppose that'd be a no!
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Current status: idle
Tales of Variable Yayness
Photos of stuff. Including Pooka!
Posts: 2006 | From: the plasticine room | Registered: May 2002
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
I was thinking about this this weekend. I don't think anyone has ever wanted to do specifically what I do when they grow up. I enjoy it, but it is a segment of the law that even people I went to law school with have little understanding of. I do find ways that the things I wanted to do when I grew up come up in my job. I always wanted to be a detective or spy. And I do get to do a lot of detective work in this job, and I occasionally get to bust someone who is trying to get away with something.
Does the thought that no child has ever said that they want your job when they grow up ever hit anyone else?
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
Does the thought that no child has ever said that they want your job when they grow up ever hit anyone else?
It goes without saying in mine. What kind of child would grow up wanting to spend most of their life stuck inside an office pushing numbers around on a spreadsheet?
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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Nenya
Shipmate
# 16427
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Posted
My mum was a nurse, my dad a teacher, and when I was a kid I did at various different times want to be both. The nursing thing stuck around for a while and after my degree (in English) I looked into the training and then realised I was doing it because I couldn't think of anything else to do. ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif) So I trained as a secretary and ended up in publishing, which was a lovely place to be with an English degree although I wanted to move into proof reading and my boss didn't let me - I was probably too useful as a secretary. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
After a "career break" to have a family I brushed up my secretarial skills for computers and now work as a part time administrator for a charity, which I love.
But my main lifelong ambition was to marry and have children and I've done that. ![[Axe murder]](graemlins/lovedrops.gif)
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
Here is a photo (he is 25, although he only looks 15!)
Boogielet2 is a very handsome young man.
Nen - likes a uniform.
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They told me I was delusional. I nearly fell off my unicorn.
Posts: 1289 | Registered: May 2011
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
I must admit to having originally wanted to be a teacher - or a librarian - but I soon realised that ordinary school teaching would drive me mad and I came to pretty much the same concluison about working in a public library. Academic librarianship was out of the question for a variety of reasons, so I decided to go for special needs teaching and hoped to end up somewhere a bit like Summerhill.
And where I ended up - after a few years unemployed (Thatcher years) and in Residential Social Work - was a kind-of Summerhill-meets-Borstal, where I served for fourteen stressful (but never boring) years. Then I moved somewhere quieter and happier - still special needs - and still not a school and with a 'client group' that I had long faniced working with.
On reflection - it's been fine. Sometimes I wish I'd been more adventurous, but there were very good personal reasons for not being adventurous in my 20s and 30s. Might explain why I'm feeling a bit restless now, though.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
quote:
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
Does the thought that no child has ever said that they want your job when they grow up ever hit anyone else?
It goes without saying in mine. What kind of child would grow up wanting to spend most of their life stuck inside an office pushing numbers around on a spreadsheet?
My husband gets all the awestruck children, my 12 year old has wanted to be an 'inventor' like his dad since he was 4.
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
I wanted to join the merchant navy but that sailed away never to return, fancied architecture, but wasn't bright enough, tried civil engineering, was too lazy (and had no head for heights, which was needed on a couple of jobs) and ended up a lowly clerk in the civil service. They were desperate for IT staff, I got into that and thirty years on I am now involved in an Enterprise Architecture project, so, to some extent, I am what I planned to be!
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
When I was five, I decided I wanted to be a librarian, because that was the only occupation I knew of where you could be surrounded by books all day.
When I was eleven, my history teacher was keen on archaeology, and brought some pottery and stone axes into school. The thought that someone thousands of years ago had made the thing that I was holding in my hand was fascinating - and I wanted to be an archaeologist.
I've been very lucky to have been able to do both. I spent four years as a professional archaeologist (until the second Tory recession stopped any hope of a career just as I was getting to the stage of applying for permanent posts after travelling round the country on short contract digs).
Before that I spent a couple of years in the Metropolitan Police library, which was fascinating work. Police forces all around the world would send us their year books, for instance - there was one from somewhere in Africa which had a running story of a constable working his way up the ranks, along with his girlfriend problems and family life, which was just lovely.
And when I couldn't get another job in archaeology, I came to Hay-on-Wye, where I've been surrounded by books ever since!
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
As a child I wanted to be lots of things, including a writer, archaeologist, academic, librarian, poet or explorer. Slightly later, I thought it would be really glamorous, grown-up and sophisticated to commute by train to an office job in a big city and have a typewriter to work with and lots of coloured pens and sheets of paper.
You can probably guess how that went.
[ 24. April 2013, 18:04: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Tree Bee
Ship's tiller girl
# 4033
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Posted
Like Nen, my Mum was a nurse and my Dad a teacher.
Unlike Nen, looking at their working lives, I knew I could never be either.
My Dad was my teacher at primary school,and I treasure the memory of a conversation about my future career that we had while perched on a climbing frame in the playground.
I decided that I wanted to be a mobile librarian, and indeed my first professional post was such.
After that I worked in branch libraries, and I feel fortunate that I was able to enter the profession when it was respected and there were enough posts to go round.
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"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
— Woody Guthrie
http://saysaysay54.wordpress.com
Posts: 5257 | From: me to you. | Registered: Feb 2003
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Edith
Shipmate
# 16978
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Posted
I had two ambitions. The first was to work on the black market because that was where you got unlimited bananas after the war. And the second was to paint the white lines down the middle of the road.
I'm now a part time university tutor. How dull is that.
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Edith
Posts: 256 | From: UK | Registered: Mar 2012
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Edith:
And the second was to paint the white lines down the middle of the road.
But I'm sure you would do it with a lot more artfulness than the big machines that do it these days.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Keren-Happuch
Ship's Eyeshadow
# 9818
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Posted
In primary school I wanted to run a tea shop on Guernsey with roses round the door and sell butterscotch ice cream - can you tell that a very specific experience provoked that ambition?
In secondary school I wanted to work with children.
At university I realised I was rather good at translating stuff, and actually enjoyed it. Ten years down the line, I'm starting to make some money at it.
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Travesty, treachery, betrayal!
EXCESS - The Art of Treason
Nea Fox
Posts: 2407 | From: A Fine City | Registered: Jul 2005
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loggats
Shipmate
# 17643
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Posted
Yes and no. Always thought I would end up writing for a living and I'm working towards that. It feels exciting to know that I might eventually get paid to research topics that interest me, write about them and share what I've learnt with others.
I might not be an Egyptologist (much to my 8 year old self's disappointment) but I think I'll be happy all the same!
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"He brought me into the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love."
Posts: 245 | Registered: Apr 2013
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
Well, no.
But I'm not dead yet.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
I wanted to be a writer--and I am that, though I'm not making a living at it either. And I wanted to write fiction, and instead I'm writing everything but.
I emphatically did NOT want to be a missionary (I was the child who wanted to sneak out of church on mission Sunday) and lo and behold...
![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
Little Lamb was quite impressed when I told him about the time I asked God what I should do with my life (aged seventeen). Got back the unmistakable answer "missions" and responded, "SHIT!" Oooh Mommy, you swore at God...
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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HughWillRidmee
Shipmate
# 15614
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Posted
Aged eight I announced that I was going to be a missionary/doctor - probably much influenced by Sunday tea with visiting preachers back in England on furlough.
Was supposed to become an actuary but got bored stiff, would have applied to the Met but eyes weren't good enough, became a management accountant (they do useful stuff rather than bean counting) by accident, then fell into selling. Spent fourteen years selling a FUD* based concept to businesses and twelve years working with the police to develop and supply hardware relevant to their needs - so a bit of the missionary and a bit of the bobby if you want to try to close the oval.
*Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
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The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things.. but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them...
W. K. Clifford, "The Ethics of Belief" (1877)
Posts: 894 | From: Middle England | Registered: Apr 2010
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Lothiriel
Shipmate
# 15561
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Posted
I wanted to be an editor. I don't know when the idea took root, and it was probably helped along by being yearbook editor in high school. After university I did technical writing and editing for a while, but found that corporate culture to be soul-suckingly desolate and barren.
I took a few years to stay at home with my toddlers, and then ventured into horticulture. In 2005, I thought I wanted to work indoors again, looked at editing job ads, and quite suddenly decided to take a publishing certificate at a local university, after seeing an ad for a book production editor that required a certificate.
I hoped to work at an educational publisher or a university press for a few years, and then work as a freelance copyeditor -- a ten-year plan. Amazingly, by being in the right place at the right time, I got a job in a publishing house, finished the certificate, and then began freelancing a few years ago with the promise of a steady stream of work from my former employer to get me started (and they're still at least half my workload).
So my teenaged self would say "Yes -- finally got there!" I sometimes regret the detours, and wish I'd pursued the dream earlier, but here I am. *Most* days I love my job.
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If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. St-Exupery
my blog
Posts: 538 | From: Toronto, Canada | Registered: Mar 2010
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
I have two part-time jobs that I enjoy equally but the one where I garner the most income was totally unknown to me during my university years. I was a failed stockbroker 25 years ago and never supported myself at it....what I had learned as a day trader while at uni did not carry over!
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Kaplan Corday
Shipmate
# 16119
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Posted
Does anybody on the Ship work at anything useful - plumber, electrician, mechanic...?
Posts: 3355 | Registered: Jan 2011
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Kaplan Corday
Shipmate
# 16119
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
I wanted to be a writer--and I am that, though I'm not making a living at it either. And I wanted to write fiction, and instead I'm writing everything but.
I emphatically did NOT want to be a missionary (I was the child who wanted to sneak out of church on mission Sunday) and lo and behold...
Little Lamb was quite impressed when I told him about the time I asked God what I should do with my life (aged seventeen). Got back the unmistakable answer "missions" and responded, "SHIT!" Oooh Mommy, you swore at God...
I once met a Brethren woman from England who told me that when she was a child, she and her sibings changed the properties on their Monopoly board into the names of prosperous or struggling assemblies, and changed Go To Jail to Go To The Missionary Meeting.
[ 25. April 2013, 02:33: Message edited by: Kaplan Corday ]
Posts: 3355 | Registered: Jan 2011
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
I can't really remember early childhood. What I can remember is agonising over the decision in the last year of school: what was I going to do in university? Science? Music? Both?
The correct answer was Law.
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kaplan Corday:
Does anybody on the Ship work at anything useful - plumber, electrician, mechanic...?
I am in the entertainment industry, not particularly useful; I am also a supply teacher and would-be novelist...
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
From age 10 I wanted to be a musician. In my teens, I had a lot of friends who told me I should be a psychologist because I understood people so well. I thought they were crazy. So now I'm a psychologist who occasionally plays music for money (I made $75 last night). I feel more like a success when doing the latter.
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
They laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian.
Well, they're not laughing now.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
They laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian.
Well, they're not laughing now.
I am!
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
I always wanted to be a librarian, because I couldn't think of anything better than being surrounded by books all wanting to be read. Of course when I actually became one, I realised you don't get a lot of time for that, but I enjoy all the organisational, information finding side too. Mind you, after a visit to the National Archives last year, I think I should have ended up there rather than in schools!
I also liked the being a novelist idea, but I had this idea if you hadn't written a best selling novel by the time you were twenty-one you couldn't be one
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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.
Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kaplan Corday:
Does anybody on the Ship work at anything useful - plumber, electrician, mechanic...?
IT Systems Engineer
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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chive
Ship's nude
# 208
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Posted
When I was a child I wanted to be either a missionary or a carpenter. Then as a teenager I decided I definitely wanted to make prosthetic limbs. Now I'm a civil servant working shifts and enjoying the fact I'm never going to attempt to get promotion, I'm just going to go in every day, do my job, come home and forget about it til the next shift. It's amazing how important that has become to me.
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'Edward was the kind of man who thought there was no such thing as a lesbian, just a woman who hadn't done one-to-one Bible study with him.' Catherine Fox, Love to the Lost
Posts: 3542 | From: the cupboard under the stairs | Registered: May 2001
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Kaplan Corday
Shipmate
# 16119
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
quote:
Originally posted by Kaplan Corday:
Does anybody on the Ship work at anything useful - plumber, electrician, mechanic...?
IT Systems Engineer
Ah, but can you fix a blocked loo?
Seriously, no-one on the Ship appears to be a tradesperson or businessperson.
Posts: 3355 | Registered: Jan 2011
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kaplan Corday:
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
quote:
Originally posted by Kaplan Corday:
Does anybody on the Ship work at anything useful - plumber, electrician, mechanic...?
IT Systems Engineer
Ah, but can you fix a blocked loo?
Seriously, no-one on the Ship appears to be a tradesperson or businessperson.
Is that your definition of "useful"?
As it happens, I can fix a blocked bog (I fitted our entire bathroom suite, I've added radiators, fitted new valves, etc.) but I'm not sure being able to fix and implement the sort of computer systems that we all depend on now is any less "useful" than plumbing or wiring a ring main.
[ 25. April 2013, 08:47: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Pegasus
Shipmate
# 1966
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Posted
I was going to go into academia. A few mishaps intervened, and I ended up as a support worker for homeless people and those with mental health problems*. I do enjoy my job very much, but I still dream of what might have been. And of not having to clean up vomit for a living.
*Does this count as useful?
Posts: 1207 | From: Ruritania | Registered: Apr 2004
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Nenya
Shipmate
# 16427
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Tree Bee:
Like Nen, my Mum was a nurse and my Dad a teacher.
Unlike Nen, looking at their working lives, I knew I could never be either.
My Dad was my teacher at primary school,and I treasure the memory of a conversation about my future career that we had while perched on a climbing frame in the playground.
I decided that I wanted to be a mobile librarian, and indeed my first professional post was such.
After that I worked in branch libraries, and I feel fortunate that I was able to enter the profession when it was respected and there were enough posts to go round.
To be fair the teaching thing didn't last very long with me because I saw the stress it put my father under. Coupled with the fact that (apart from my own) I don't really like children. Or schools. ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
I too considered being a librarian, but I'm glad I didn't go for it as nowadays working in public libraries seems to be a lot of crowd control with teenagers on the computers.
The nursing thing still hangs around me a bit, simply because I think it must be rewarding to go into work and make a real difference to someone's day. Every so often I wonder about going into the caring profession and then I remind myself how useless I'd be at it. The charity I work for does its hands-on stuff overseas so the admin I do is fairly far removed from the coalface, so to speak.
Nen - who likes office work but not spreadsheets.
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They told me I was delusional. I nearly fell off my unicorn.
Posts: 1289 | Registered: May 2011
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