Inspired by What did you want to be.. What real career dream did you give up?

[NotUrsula]

We all know that little kids dream of all kinds of improbable professions, but I'm curious to know about the real road not taken. Did you get into your late teens/early 20's with a dream career in mind and end up giving it up?

I did it twice. I really wanted to be an illuminating engineer, but a year or so into college I came to the conclusion that I just would not be able to hack the required math. I still really wish I'd been able to do it; I'm really fascinated by the various properties of light and the ways that they can be manipulated.

Then I went to law school ... and got very sick at the end of first year. So sick that I ended up failing and being dismissed from the school. It cost me a fortune in student loans, but it didn't break my heart. (I had done it mostly because it was a potentially lucrative career that did not require too much advanced math.)

 

[donac]

I am a very strange person in this regard. I started tutoring my friends in math when I was in high school. I went to college to study to be a math teacher and made it out in 4 years. I graduated in May and in September I started teaching in the same school that I am teaching in now..

After 32 years I still enjoy teaching math (It also helps that I now teach AP classes most of the day) but I also I love to teach other teachers how to use calculators. I have been doing that part time now for over 12 years now.

I can't wait to hear what other people have to say.

 

[Evil Genius]

Joining the Navy. I was all set to sign the papers and my mom stopped it by telling me that "Girls didn't do such things." I was 18 at the time. I still wonder what my life would have been like.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I wanted to be Jane Goodall.

Well, okay, I wanted to be a field behavioral ecologist. Then I met DH. Then I realized DH and I would end up getting married. Then I realized field work like I was interested in was not really conducive to a stable marriage and/or raising children.

I also went to law school. Unfortunately, I graduated with few problems. Now I'm stuck in a career I don't actually like much at all, but with student loans that make taking on a different line of work cost prohibitive.

In retrospect, I would rather have been a poet.

 

[Angelhalo]

I gave up the dream of being a chef. First off I never could pass the required chemistry courses in college, and second, I decided that I wanted a family one day and didn't want to be working evenings and weekends.

 

[Planogirl]

I wanted to be a veterinarian but my grades weren't good enough and I couldn't afford the college fees anyway. My grades were OK but they only accepted the cream of the crop and I certainly wasn't that! I ended up being an Industrial Engineer, never working as one and have had a bunch of bad jobs. I too wonder what could have been.

By the way, this was also my childhood dream. It never changed.

 

[suejai]

I wanted to get a PhD in Medieval History but I listened to my mother who told me that it is a useless degree and that I would never get a job. I went to university and started out in Chemistry, did not do well at all. Ended up getting a Geography degree, eventually. What did I learn from this experience? Do what you love and things will likely work out, because you will make them work. But if you do things for other people, you will end up drifting for the rest of your life.

 

[kimblebee]

I wanted to be a meteorologist. I didn't decide that until I was about 23 or so. Unfortunately, I knew I wouldn't be able to pass all the science courses that were required. Also, I would have had to move to a different city as the course isn't offered in mine. I had a 3 year old back then so it wasn't really an option. I still wonder if maybe I should have gone for it.

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

A pixie dust spreader on the tilt-a-whirl!!

 

[Julia M]

My undergrad degrees are in history and speech pathology. While in grad school for speech pathology, I considered going back to college after my MA and doing the science classes needed for a med school application, to be a neurologist (I was really into adult neuological disorders).

I didn't do it, because I felt the science classes would be too difficult, and I wasn't sure I could commit to doing that much more schooling.

I ended up a speech therapist in the public schools. Nine years ago (in my late 30's) I began doing preschool assessment and working with the preschool autism population. Now I run the intake and supervision of our district autism program, oversee 40+ staff (spec. ed teachers, SLP's, aides, tutors and more). Definitely not what I anticipated or dreamed about, but all my past experiences have made it a perfect fit for me (especially the neuroscience part)

Julia

 

[DMickey28]

I don't know that this counts as it's a little backwards from what you are asking ... but.

Growing up I never knew what I wanted to be. I thought maybe a lawyer, I was good at arguing, I was great at research and I am very analytical. Deep down the only thing that felt right to me was to be a mom and wife. That doesn't go over so well with counselors and such!!!

So I went to school to be a Restaurant Manager and went to Culinary school. Then I met DH. The restaurant lifestyle was not condusive to raising a family so I left that career. Now I am a wife and a mother and couldn't be happier!

Sometimes I wonder what if ...

... What if I had continued with work? We probably wouldn't have gotten married etc.
.... What if I had gone to law school? That wasn't even on my radar until a few years ago anyway realistically and something I could potentially do in the future.
... What if I had not backed out of Florida Institute of Technology and their Aeronautical Engineering program in August before school started? Who knows on that one ...

So while I could never figure out what I wanted to do I am doing what it is I always felt in my heart was the right job for me!!

 

[lemondog]

A doctor....

unfortunately my brain is just not designed to complete all the necessary math/science. I am much more literature/language focused.

Still, I often have serious thoughts of going to nursing school when my kids get older.

 

[sunnyday123]

When I was little it was Snow White and a vet; I can't sing and didn't have the sense to do well enough in school to become a vet, so those both were out. After that disappointment wore off, I really really wanted to go to art school,more than anything. I wanted to design greeting cards-I pictured myself sitting in a nice home office, designing my cards with the birds singing and sun shining.

My parents wouldn't let me go because the school was in Philly. So now I am stuck in a job ( one of them at least ) that I hate, and don't have to time to focus on the other job to really do well enough to quit the one I hate. As if that isn't bad enough, the daughter of a family friend ( who I never got along with ) went to the school I wanted to go to, and she works from home for some company. Guess what she gets to do every Christmas??? Yep. And every year, her stupid card gets passed around. Argh. Now I need a drink.

 

[NikitaZee]

I was working toward my undergrad degree in biology with the intention of getting a masters in virology. Then I got serious with my husband, got married and immediately had my son, and my husband was very uncomfortable with the idea of me working so closely with dangerous organisms. I agreed to follow another track in biology - only I've stayed home with our kids and haven't finished school yet. My plan is to return next year - still biology but I'm still debating which way to go with it. I still read anything I can get my hands on that has to do with viruses, bacteria and microbiology in general - I just find it fascinating.

 

[lovesmurfs]

I was nearly finished with my degree in music education from a great school -- even student taught successfully. I never completed my stupid English and sociology, etc. basic classes (the university was so large that the sections I needed were always full, and it was the days before effective correspondence courses). I didn't really like dealing with classroom discipline, so it probably worked out all right.

So in December 2006 (20 years after graduating from HS), I got my BA, and 2 years later finished my MA in organizational leadership.

I'm happy doing what I'm doing professionally now, and I still play my instrument in local bands/orchestras, so it's a win/win!

 

[Uuaww]

I posted this before, but by far the biggest what-if in my life.

Junior year of high school, I was getting offers from various college for football (I was a great punter, so-so kicker) I was stoked about the prospect of not having to pay for college and getting to go to a great school for FREE! Senior year comes around, had my visits to Colorado State, UAB and Southern Mississippi; life was awesome. First Quarter, first game of the season, I get blindsided on a punt block, landed awkwardly and spiral fractured my ankle/leg, part of the bone stuck out of my skin. My football life ended, no scholarships, no more fun...

I remember laying on the field, seeing the ambulence pull up field side, my friends in the stands with handles over their mouths, my teammates huddled together... Our Coach had a "tradition" that if a senior player went down with a a season ending injury during the season, he let them keep his helmet (everyone else had to return them). As I laid down in the ambulence, he placed my helmet in beside me, and I knew it was over.

Biggest what-if in my life.

 

[yoopermom]

I took a class in the Classics (Greek, Latin) and just LOVED it, but knew that if I didn't go all the way through for my PhD and eventually teach in a college I wouldn't be able to do anything with it.

Got my English BA, didn't really want to teach, so went on and got my MLS, which I've never regretted.

I still wish I had taken more Classics classes though!

Terri

 

[NotUrsula]

I was working toward my undergrad degree in biology with the intention of getting a masters in virology. Then I got serious with my husband, got married and immediately had my son, and my husband was very uncomfortable with the idea of me working so closely with dangerous organisms. I agreed to follow another track in biology - only I've stayed home with our kids and haven't finished school yet. My plan is to return next year - still biology but I'm still debating which way to go with it. I still read anything I can get my hands on that has to do with viruses, bacteria and microbiology in general - I just find it fascinating.

Did you consider the possibility of plant virology? Not nearly so hazardous to people.

 

[Becky2005]

I don't really know if it was giving it up since I didn't even know it was profession at the time.

I loved genetics in high school -- I don't think anyone had ever heard of a genetics counselor, I know it was never brought up in any career information I ever looked at.

I actually went back to our Community College after I quit my job to stay at home with the kids -- thinking "OK, what do I want to be when I grow up?" -- I took an Introduction to Genetics course...and decided my brain was too old to keep up with the statistics. I did find out I was pregnant during the course too, that might have had something to do with the course being difficult for me, I did manage to get an A in the course.

 

[crz4mm2]

Vet.

No money for college.... SO I got married instead.