What did you want to be when you grew up?
All I ever wanted to be was a writer, which is what makes it terrifying when I’m in a slump, because this is pretty much all I’ve ever had to offer, and if it’s not working I get into a total panic spiral.
A.
A paleontologist, even at a time when my friends had never heard the word, nor knew what it meant. Unfortunately, I’m not much good at finding/recognizing fossils, an epic fail for a budding young paleontologist, so nowadays all I can do is read about the fabulous finds in China, or Mongolia, or Argentina, study the cladograms, and dream of what might’ve been…
I wanted to be a firefighter until some firefighters in the South turned their hoses on civil rights workers. I wanted to play shortstop for the SF Giants, but wasn’t even permitted to sign up for Little League (no gurls allowed).
I never wanted to be a lawyer — so much for childhood desires.
Since I was in a military family, I was expected to go to the academy, become a pilot and the general that my father could never be, so I spent a lot of time in younger years being immersed in the sciences and military lore, and about all I read for fun were science books and science fiction. Then, in high school, they found that my left eye was bad, so that wasn’t going to happen.
But, I think I always wanted to be writer. And I am. I’m just destined to never have a readership, I suppose.
In successive periods I wanted to be :
A wilderness guide
The first man on Mars
A stellar physicist
Owsley
Mr. Natural
Then I got drafted.
President…but considering how FUBAR’D the gubmit is, courtesy of yer Rethugs, thank god I couldn’t even get elected to student council…which shot down my political dreams forever…
Wanted to be a farmer like my dad. Unfortunately, I was allergic to about everything outside our house on the farm. So I went into newspapering as a poor second, in every sense of the term.
While there were brief times when I wanted to do something different, I pretty much wanted to be a teacher from the beginning. I was the oldest in my neighborhood and bossy at the time. If the little kids weren’t around I would line up dolls to be my students. I was tutoring my friends in math as early as 7th grade. It’s just something I have always known I wanted.