Based on what you wanted to be when you were grew up , has your life turned out as planned?

[OneUmberJoker]

No not really

I wanted to be a ballet teacher and was on course for it until I got run over by a car at 16 years old.

Nope drifted from one thing to another, found a career I loved, then life did a 180 and I may never get back to a job I love. Hopefully it will have been worth it.

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!

I wanted to be a nurse or work with special needs children.
I didn’t do either of these things.

When I was really young, from about 10 years old I always dreamed of being an author as I loved to write!!! I have actually wrote 3 novels which sit printed in my wardrobe for my own pleasure but I never actually went down the road of making it a career or looking to get them published.

In terms of career, from the age of about 14 I always dreamed of becoming a midwife but sadly the development of a health condition when I was 17 put an end to that path, but I did go on to qualify as a paediatric nurse and I’m now working as a Lactation Consultant, so I haven’t ended up too far off the mark!

I also wanted to spend my adult days surrounded by cats, but as my husband HATES them, that part of my perfect life will sadly never come to fruition. Maybe one day we’ll get divorced though and then in his absence I can make my final dream become a reality 🤣🤣

Yes did the jobs I wanted and got the husband, 2 kids, cat and cottage.

When I was a kid I was 💯 convinced that I would be famous one day and I’m not so I’d have to say no, it didn’t work out as planned.

All I ever wanted to be was a primary school teacher. Which I am. And still enjoy doing despite having done it for a while now. I also live in a village I always aspired to live in. So mostly. Always wanted to get married/be a bride but never managed that part sadly.

No.

Reading some of the other responses about careers advisers telling them not to become vets. I was given the same advice. Except I ignored it.

I wanted to be a vet. I am one. It turned out once I got there that I didn't want to be in clinical practice though, so I am not. My career has gone in several directions I did not anticipate, including military service and pharma. I have had an impact on far more lives, human and four legged than I ever expected.

I also have the husband, home and children we wanted. There have been years when it has been really, really tough emotionally, but life has been good to me in general. It is useful to remind myself of that regularly.

Yes, I went to uni and then had dc pretty much straightaway so worked part and then full time in a related field and completed my masters while DH worked all the hours in his own business they were young.

I secretly felt a bit jealous of people I met who were doing the job but knew it was incompatible with having young children. As soon as they got to secondary school, I applied for and got my dream job. Had to take a step back on wages and seniority for a few years but luckily I’d earned well previously so already had the home and security to be able to do it and DH was happy to support my career as I had done for his for so many years previous. Life has a funny way of working out sometimes!

Sadly, I never did become Madonna 😞

I wanted to be a writer. I am.

But 13 year old me thought that everyone left school at 15 and got a job in a shop, or an office if you had more aspirations, and that you got married to the first available guy in your early 20s and were a SAHM to far more children than you could afford with maybe a little night time job, because that’s all I saw around me. Only one person I knew had ever left the country. Fortunately I was stubborn enough to stay on at school against my parents’ wishes, got a scholarship to university, got another to study overseas, and spent almost 30 years living in other countries and working in academia and journalism, while writing fiction. I also acquired a DH and a DS along the way.

So TLDR — my life, even though it’s also been difficult, is far better than I could ever have dreamed of in my emotionally and economically impoverished childhood.

Well I wanted to be a cowgirl, so no 🫩

I wanted to be a lawyer and childless.
I became a lawyer but with 5 kids. I’ve moved on and up from the law but not on and up from mothering ☺️

I didn’t know what I wanted to be, I still don’t really! I wasn’t any good academically, so my job options were limited. I did a degree, but it didn’t qualify me to do anything useful. I spent a few years going from crap job to crap job, and eventually retrained. Careers advice was nonexistent at school and during my first degree. Both my dc know what they want to do, which really helps with motivation when it comes to school / college.
If I had my life again I would make a lot of different choices. But then that’s hindsight for you!

I dont think my childhood ambitions were realistic. I was going to be a palentologist simultaneously with being an eye doctor traveling with a charity to poor areas where eye issues were more common, all whilst running a small farm in england with 4 children (all girls) and publishing my book.

I have done none of those things.

Well... I changed my name, moved sufficiently far away from the family pressure (the privacy and independence is a non-stop novelty!), work on a farm, and have dogs and a piano (I was told that I wasn't allowed either of these until I moved out, so they were the first things that I got).

I haven't yet got around to touring the country in a Romany caravan, growing most of my own fruits and vegetables, moved to a remote croft on a Scottish island, kept poultry, published a book or had children yet, but if I live as long as my grandmother, then I have plenty of time for most of that!

Nothing was ever planned I have lived day to day since childhood taking what ever happened in my stride lots of tragedy & disappointment,sadly I have no good lady in my life to love any more, MN entertains me quite a bit.
Merry Christmas everyone 🍷

At age 13/14 I had very little idea of what I wanted to do and one of my teachers convinced me I should go into teaching. Unfortunately my parents stood in my way. They just wanted me to get a job, any job, and "pay for my keep". They had old fashioned working class values that wanting to better yourself made you uppity and was disrespectful to your parents. (Yes some people really did think like that back then). I was lucky enough to get into local government as a library assistant. I wanted to take the professional exams and become a qualified librarian. My parents again stood in my way and claimed they could not afford to support me while I was "faffing about" being a student. Through sheer hard work and persistence I took my library exams part time and qualified. As soon as I did so I had the finances to leave home and begin to draw a line between myself and my parents. I cant even tell you how much they resented this. But you reap what you sow.

I rose to middle management. However the profession was changing and new people were entering with a degree in library science - something I did not have. In my early 40s I took the courageous decision to step off the career ladder and enter uni as a mature student. Local authority grants were still available in the 1980s. I was only there a short time before I realised that I was a born academic. After gaining a 1st in psychology I went on to do a masters and a doctorate. I then went into lecturing including a period in the USA. I gave up employed work when I reached pension age but I still do private tutoring at postgraduate level. I particularly enjoy working with international students. They are hard working and driven and I see something of myself in them.

So in a way I did go into teaching, although with adults and not children. I think my old teacher would have been pleased.

Yes. My occupation is the same as my childhood ambition. Life long career and almost 25 years so far. Still love it!

Interestingly I have the same job as my sister and sister in law. There must be something in the water. 😁

deep sea diver. Never did this and to be fair I am a weak swimmer

I ALWAYS, from the age of about five, wanted to be an author. I wanted to live in the country, have a dog and a cat and be bohemian and eccentric and a bit random.

I haven't got a cat. Apart from that, I got the full set. I am so, so lucky. Oh, everyone thinks I'm slightly odd, but I just reword it as 'eccentric' and live with it.

When I was 10 I decided I wanted to be a Maths teacher. I am a Maths teacher.

I read the Chalet School books and decided I wanted to teach overseas. I do.

I thought I would fall in love, get married and have children. I fell in love and have a daughter so fairly good on that one.

In a loose sense yes my life has turned out as planned. I hoped to have a decent job, marry a nice bloke who had a bit of get up and go and aspirations, have a family and a nice home. All that's checked out.

In particulars? Nah. I'm sure I thought I was going to be any number of professions, a doctor, a marine biologist, a journalist... Of course I am none of these things and have quite an ordinary office-type job earning a good but not particularly high salary.

But I am very happy with my life and very content. I don't need a mansion or a million pounds or glamorous 'cool' job, my life is pretty nice as it is.