As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up and why?

[Jayne]

12 hours ago, missmuffet said:

Many of us had our hopes set on what we wanted to be when we grew up but it didn't work out that way. Is there anyone here who actually went on the have the career you wanted as a child?

 

Oh, how I wanted to be a paleontologist!!  I read everything I could and that was there at the time about dinosaurs, bones, digging, and more.  I also, with all my heart wanted to be a missionary!!  I was convinced that this was my destiny.

Either way, I was determined that I would be in Africa one day.  

I did make a small mission trip at the age of 16 with my church to a Native American Reservation in Oklahoma who wanted a church to come in and conduct a Vacation Bible School for the children.  I had never worked with children, never even babysat!

But at the end of the week, God said to me, "This is what I want you to do."  I cried the ugly cry.  Not because digging up dinosaur bones was out or and being an overseas missionary was out.  I cried like way because God had spoken to me so clearly and definitively.

I'm still wild about anything prehistoric and dinosaurs and I still think about the mission field sometimes.  Now, as a retiree, each day is in the Lord's hand.

 

Edited September 15, 2024 by Jayne

[Marathoner]

5 hours ago, Ray12614 said:

I wanted to be an fighter pilot in the air force . . . unfortunately . . . my eye sight was/is near sighted . . . so that pretty much ended that dream . . . 

Currently . . . I am retired . . . but I would like to be an brain surgeon . . . but . . . that dream is on hold even though I bought an new skill saw from the hardware store, and new drill bits for my cordless drill.

What's the problem you ask ? ? ?  I can't find somebody to practice on and nobody will volunteer to be my test brain patient . . .  Hummm . . . . maybe if I showed them pictures of my new drill bits and skill saw ? ! ? ! ??

Yeah, you'd want someone with a brain to work on which rules me out. Sorry. 

[Neighbor]

Plans? Hmm none,  just survive school alive is all, till I met my wife to be at age 16, then it dawned on me, hey I need  to be able to support  a family.  

[Marilyn C]

Good topic MM,

I loved the way you lined up your dolls and toys and pretended to be an airline stewardess. I did similar, but I taught my dolls, as I wanted to be a teacher. I taught Sunday School and then went to Teacher`s College. I taught in country schools and loved it Today, seems much harder in the classroom.

I retired early due to illness but have recovered enough to Bible teach and make disciples which I really love. 

[Michael37]

My parents had lofty ambitions for me, insisting I train for a career in diplomacy, but open to my becoming a clergyman like my father, grandfather and other ancestors. I did my best to co-operate with these aspirations but could not shake my tendency to labour in the fields and toil in gardens, blessed to work with machines, equipment, and tools, from an early age. I began earning money from local clients for lawnmowing, gardening, and odd jobs when I was 9 years old, and I'm still active in this vocation, mainly in a management role, at 70 minus 

 

[BibleStudent100]

On 9/15/2024 at 1:48 AM, Deborah_ said:

Fortunately I was clever enough to get good exam grades, so I got into medical school easily. And I was a doctor for the whole of my working life.

What type of medicine was your specialty?

[Cyoder]

I remember watching the cartoon Speed Racer and I wanted to be a race car driver.  Now I work a monotonous job in a factory repairing machines.  I feel like I am wasting my life here, but I don't know what else to do.  There isn't really anything else around that even pays close to what I make, and I am the primary income.  I excel at fixing things; I know it's what God put me here to do. In my industry, there are only a few people that I've met over the years that were better.  I don't know why God gave me this talent, but he did.  I want to figure out a way to use it to give back.  I do try to thank him and give him praise every time I fix something, especially when it's difficult.  I finally understand that I can't do anything without him.

[BibleStudent100]

On 9/14/2024 at 11:41 PM, Marathoner said:

The circumstances surrounding how that came to pass are extraordinary.

Amazing coincidences!  

[other one]

In the 4th grade our class went on a field trip to our local TV station and we got to go behind the scenes and watch how it was all done.  That day I decided to be a director at that station and told the person who owned the station that I would sit in that seat when I was old enough.

I never lost that desire and spent time learning what happens on the other end of the cameras.  When in high school, I would go out Friday nights and sit with the chief engineer overseeing the transmitter and learn more and use the older equipment to train myself how to do it all.

On my 18th birthday, the TV station called me and ask me if I wanted a job.   I spent about 6 years in that seat and two more in a larger station in Oklahoma City.  The job in Oklahoma was all glory and no pay and to make a living good enough to raise a family I would have to move to New York City, Chicago, or LA.    Being from a small town and my wife the same, that was out of the question.  But my wife would not agree to have kids until we were making a lot more.

So I left my first desire of a job and went to work at Xerox as a customer service engineer.  While at the TV station I had studied and earned a FCC First Class Radio License which actually got me the Job at Xerox.    38 years later and two wonderful kids we retired from Xerox and my wife from teaching, and hopefully we will live happily ever after.   Both of us being born again Believers, that may well actually happen.        

I would say that I did enjoy my work at Xerox much more than the stress filled job in TV.   But I doubt I would have gotten the job at Xerox without that electronics training of the FCC license and three years of college with hours to have a degree in Math/Physics and computer software.

The last machine I worked on.

 

 

The white part of the machine is a 288 page a minute printer, and the black part is a Borg paperback book maker..   It sorts, cuts, binds and puts covers on the books.    Put a CD in one end and books come out the other.   Most of these would run about 3 million prints a month working three shifts a day seven days a week, no holidays.      So someone on our team had to be working all the time, just in case.   Most of our other machines also ran three shifts.   We took turns covering weekends which gave us a lot of overtime.    It was a really good career.

 

I would say that the Lord had his hand on my life from the start.

[Neighbor]

1 hour ago, Cyoder said:

Speed Racer

Speed Racer, we had a cartoon cell framed from Speed racer, can't remember when or where we got it now, or even where it is. I think my grandson has it.