Thread: When I grow up I want to ................ (not) Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by Mullygrub (# 9113) on :
 
... Still get pimples;

... Have a mortgage OR be paying off someone else's mortgage;

... Spend energy worrying about whether it's recycling bin or green waste bin night this week;

... Find that A Good Night Out invariably involves staying in on the couch with some Cab Sav and a decent flick (and may or may not necessarily require the company of beloveds or friends);

... Celebrate when there's a spittle of sun forecast for a mid-winter's day in the hopes of getting some washing dry (as in, not just warmed from the pathetic heater in the lounge thereby creating my very own tropical weather system in my house, but actually dry);

... Somehow have missed the marriage-and-kids boat;

... Somehow be reasonably okay with missing the marriage-and-kids boat (today!);

... Actually enjoy doing the dishes (end, understand, not means), because a clean kitchen before bed is The Most Wonderful Thing.

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This is not intended to be a woe-is-me-in-my-aging-form thread, just to be clear. It has come out of a discussion with colleagues about how far from our childhood "When I grow up I want to be..." thoughts our lives as adults appear to be.

Being the lover of grand quirk and the absurd that I am, I'd love to hear your funny, queer, poignant, sad, quaint reflections on the things you thought, as a child, you'd find your adult self doing, and whether or not they have come to pass......

[Edited to remove un-Heavenly words of the naughty persuasion. Woops.]

[ 31. May 2012, 04:37: Message edited by: Mullygrub ]
 

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Posted by St Deird (# 7631) on :
 
I certainly thought I'd be married ages ago, for one thing.

And that I'd have gone overseas a lot more than I have.

Never expected to want to do my dishes every day, or to be so pleased at the outcome.

Was sure I was going to end up with much larger breasts...

I did expect myself to end up spending fun evenings doing craftwork and watching television - but then that's been fairly consistent since I was in high school.
 

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Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
I naively thought I'd be able to eat as much chocolate as I wanted and still stay slim when I grew up. That idea got squashed very quickly (especially when I sat on it!)

Otherwise, life has turned out fairly predictably.
 

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Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
I wanted to enjoy doing the garden (very English). I am now forty-cough and I still have no desire to plant and harvest let alone weed, prune, trim, dig or mow.
 

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Posted by Evensong (# 14696) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Mullygrub:

... Find that A Good Night Out invariably involves staying in on the couch with some Cab Sav and a decent flick (and may or may not necessarily require the company of beloveds or friends);

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Yeah. Tho in my case it's a decent Chardonnay and an engrossing fiction novel.

quote:

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Originally posted by St Deird:

Was sure I was going to end up with much larger breasts...

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At age ten I thought I was going to be an engineer and my friends thought I was going to be a comedienne.

Turns out I'm a theologian training for ministry.

A good compromise?
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Evensong:

At age ten I thought I was going to be an engineer and my friends thought I was going to be a comedienne.

Turns out I'm a theologian training for ministry.

A good compromise?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Boogie:
I wanted to work with animals.

I'm a Primary School teacher - good compromise?

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The antithesis of acting (per W C Fields), except that teaching seems to involve quite a bit of performance.
 

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Posted by BessHiggs (# 15176) on :
 
When I grew up, I was going to be a world famous marine biologist.

Instead, I spent many years working as a bookkeeper. Then, I attended seminary. Then I worked for a church, ministering to children and teens. All of which experience turned out to be very very helpful when I decided to open a bar.

I can tell you in boring detail where every penny goes in the business. I spend a great deal of time listening to and comforting broken, lost and hurting people. I have discovered that drunks are often an awful lot like bratty toddlers or horny middle-schoolers. And, I just may run the only beer joint in the country with a "Time Out Chair".
 

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Posted by Aggie (# 4385) on :
 
Realistically when I was younger, I always imagined my forty-year old self (the age I will be soon) to: 1) have travelled a lot, perhaps even worked abroad for many years 2) to be married. I have lived abroad, but I have not travelled extensively and sadly I have never been married.

When I was a child I wanted to be either a vet 'cos I've always loved animals or a pathologist (the TV series "Quincy MD" was my inspiration for that). Neither came to pass, partly because I realised as I got older how squeamish I really am, and partly because I didn't get very good grades in the science and maths subjects at secondary school.

As a teenager I decided that I really wanted to be a priest, this was pre-1993, so I got laughed out of the careers advisor's office, and my late father (not at all religious) was appalled. I also considered becoming a nun, but this sent my father into an even deeper rage. This never came to pass either, I think it was just a teenage whim/dream, rather than a true vocation. I certainly have never felt any calling whatsoever to holy orders since then.
 

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Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
I remember wanting to stay up as late as I wanted to. And I do that. It just so happens that "as late as I want to" is 9:00 some nights.
 

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Posted by Desert Daughter (# 13635) on :
 
I never wanted to grow up. And I didn't... ask my mother...
 

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Posted by BalddudeCrompond (# 12152) on :
 
Aggie, are you my long lost identical twin? I wanted to be either a priest or doctor or veterinarian. What did I end up doing? Banking!
 

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Posted by Aggie (# 4385) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by BalddudeCrompond:
Aggie, are you my long lost identical twin? I wanted to be either a priest or doctor or veterinarian. What did I end up doing? Banking!

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I ended up working as an Administrator for an IT company - nothing very exciting, but at least it is a job, and reasonably well-paid.
 

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Posted by Emma Louise (# 3571) on :
 
I had expected to be leading a church with a partner, studied theology at uni, did some training etc .... but that ended when life went rather tits up which I wasn't expecting.

I didn't expect to be struggling both financially and with health issues in my 30s

I did hope to be married with kids which I am.
 

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Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I expected to become a cheetah. One that could fly.
 

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Posted by Earwig (# 12057) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
I remember wanting to stay up as late as I wanted to. And I do that. It just so happens that "as late as I want to" is 9:00 some nights.

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Me too - on both accounts!
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
I wanted to be a librarian (I now work in a bookshop, so that worked pretty well) - or Emma Peel.
I also wanted to be an author - and now I have a pretty successful local blog, and I've just started self-publishing on Smashwords, so that worked pretty well too.

What I never expected, because I was a painfully shy little thing, was that I would have tremendous fun dressing up in costume - first at Star Trek conventions (mostly as an Andorian in Starfleet uniform), and later as a historical re-enactor, (medieval Welsh and Viking), and for local events as Matilda de Breos, the lady who built Hay Castle, and all sorts of other excuses to dress up.
And beer - I never expected to become a real ale fan, and member of CAMRA. I was that rarely seen creature, a practically teetotal student!

I did have a vague notion of myself in advanced old age (like, forty or so) riding a tricycle while wearing tweeds. I have the tweeds, but I'm still working on the tricycle!
 

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Posted by kankucho (# 14318) on :
 
In my early teens, I had a memorably traumatic (nocturnal) dream in which I was obliged to go and live in a small terrace house in a poorer part of town.

When I grew up and moved to London to fulfil my dreams, that wasn't one that I was expecting to fulfil. But fulfil it I did. And, latterly, I count myself as one of the luckier Londoners for that.

[ 01. June 2012, 16:34: Message edited by: kankucho ]
 

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Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :
 
Interesting thread, as I am coming to it as a person in their 6th decade of life. My life goes quickly!

My response is that the worst thing that I see in most people's lives is 'life not lived', and that hesitation to try things is mostly needless fears. If you wish to do something, be something, experience something, best is to talk about it with loved ones, and make plans as best as possible.

I ended up living and working in places and things unexpected, but had most of the experiences I thought I wanted and a few extra. The best and most important experienced involved people. The one that I may never get to, is canoeing to the arctic from either the Nelson - Lake Winnipeg region or from the Saskatchewan River region. It was planned but my canoeing partner died rather suddenly of cancer. Now, if I could find another buddy who could tolerate living in the bush, variable weather conditions for 3-4 months -- may not happen in this lifetime.
 

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Posted by WhateverTheySay (# 16598) on :
 
I wanted to move out, which I did.

I wanted to work with animals. That didn't happen. I certainly didn't expect that I would be out of work with chronic medical conditions. Nor did I expect that some of what I have experienced during this time would set me on a completely different path. Though I am happy with where I am going.

I didn't expect that I would not have a degree by now. But unfortunately health issues got in the way. I will be going to uni and getting that degree, and actually when I have finished I hope to have 2 degrees (different subjects, both relevant to my career choice) but that will be some number of years from now.
 

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Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :
 
I thought I'd be a missionary. I'm working in healthcare in Scotland. I also thought that marriage was a nice easy part of life, maybe because my parents got on. It's not easy, and I reckon in reality it never is.

Cattyish, happy with my lot.
 

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Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
If I'd known there was such a job as 'Custodian of the National Archive of Anglican Chant', I'd have probably wanted to be one. But I didn't. In fact, I only found out this job existed today. Sounds fun!
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Mullygrub:
"When I grow up I want to be..."

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sir Kevin:

quote:

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Originally posted by Mullygrub:

When I grow up:

I want to look back on my need to change from studying architecture and pre-city planning to just muddling through the art curriculum and having such bad marks that grad school was an impossibility.

I want to be drowning in consumer debt and have my wife looking forward to paying off her last student loan in her sixties.

I want to be a day's drive from my nearest relative.

I want to spend the summer holidays (due to underemployment) in a place where it is over 40 in late May.

I want to live in a house that is two sizes too small for all our things.

I want to have some serious health problems such as hypertension which are treated by expensive medicines and shell out more than a week's pay every month on health insurance.

I want to be estranged from my daughter.

I want to drive 1000 miles to see my parents and lose them both before I am 55.

I could go on....

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[Edit UBB]

[ 03. June 2012, 09:51: Message edited by: Zappa ]
 

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Posted by Morlader (# 16040) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Chorister:
If I'd known there was such a job as 'Custodian of the National Archive of Anglican Chant', I'd have probably wanted to be one. But I didn't. In fact, I only found out this job existed today. Sounds fun!

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I know the publication you got that info from, Chorister!

I have a collection of anglican chants, about 1200 at the mo, which I thought was pretty good/obsessive, but 15000+ ... Mind you, several of *mine* are unique .
 

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Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :
 
Hah! I just had to reply here after reading the first line of the OP. Of the many things I thought would be different about being grown up, three stand out, and one of them is...pimples.

Yeah. I thought they would go away. They have declined, a bit, perhaps, but they're exacerbated by stress/sickness, and I have two small children, so I'm basically always stressed and/or sick.

I thought I would have a 'career' - you know, when someone asks 'what do you do?' - be able to say 'I'm a XXX'. Not slide from one random indistinguishable admin role to another like a melting jelly. Cos at school I was 'clever', you see, and at University. You are sort of given to understand by the people who run these places that things will work out just fine for you, and you believe them, but, -no. It turns out you don't function particularly well outside of learning institutions.

Lastly, I imagined I would have friends. Not sure why, really - but I did have friends while I was at school and University. Not now. Some family, mostly in-laws, who I genuinely get on with, some Uni friends I stay in contact with though we are inconveniently far apart. Hardly know the neighbours. Never broke into the coffee group circle. Or the Kindy/daycare circle. Don't have any 'social' hobbies. I get on fine with folk at work but don't socialise with them. Ditto church, when I was attending. If I died tomorrow, there would be maybe 30 people at my funeral and about 22 of them would be family/in-laws.

So let's hope I live to 'grow up' a bit more, eh? Though really, what's going to change? Maybe when the kids are out from under my feet I can escape back to Nirvana and do a PhD...
 

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Posted by chive (# 208) on :
 
When I was a kid I wanted to be either a detective or a nun (which is slightly odd for the child of incredibly presbyterian parents).

I did ended up being seconded to the police for a couple of years and although I loved the investigations, the interviewing and going to court, I found I couldn't cope with the hours and the stress and ended up going mental.

As to being a nun. Maybe....

I certainly didn't expect to spend most of my twenties and thirties fighting with mental illness. I'm glad I didn't know that then.
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by anoesis:
... Of the many things I thought would be different about being grown up, three stand out, and one of them is...pimples.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Drifting Star:

quote:

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Originally posted by anoesis:
... Of the many things I thought would be different about being grown up, three stand out, and one of them is...pimples.

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Oh yes. How can it be right to be using wrinkle cream and spot cream on the same face at the same time?

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Soooooo trrruuuuuuuue....
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Boogie:
I wanted to work with animals.

I'm a Primary School teacher - good compromise?

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