In light of the release of Spike Jonze’s new film Where The Wild Things Are and Sam’s recent post about determining your career path, I thought it would be fitting to open a discussion about our childhood aspirations. When we were children, we didn’t exhibit any of the restraint characteristic of adulthood. We let our imaginations run hog-wild and we could be anything we wanted to be. The possibilities were endless; you could be a cowboy, a firefighter, a cop, an athlete, a dancer, the President of the United States or The King of Forest Monsters. It didn’t matter. If we could imagine it, it was within reach. Some of us might have forgotten what it’s like to be idealistic. Let’s use this exercise to step into our past and re-imagine what our aspirations were before our dreams were squashed by the weight of reality.
My personal dream was to be a professional baseball player. Not just any professional baseball player but a hard-throwing southpaw closer, brought in only during the most fragile situations to determine the outcome of the game. I chased that dream all through Little League baseball and was pretty good but I was sort of a late bloomer and after a while, I just couldn’t physically compete anymore.
What about you? What did you dream of doing as a kid? Comment and get entered into our Google Wave Invite contest!
Image courtesy of jaredchapman
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
When i was small i really wanted to the first Chinese American President of the United States. I wanted to give speeches that uplift the nation and bring peace and progress to the world. I secretly still want to be and not alot of people know about that.
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Michael John Liu Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 2:35 am
I’d vote for you holmes. You have the charisma and million-dollar smile. What else do you need? I could be your speech writer.
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I didn’t really have any particular aspirations when I was younger in terms of a specific job (police, fireman, etc…). I think my childhood aspiration was just to see people smile and whatever job would fit that task was what I wanted to do.
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Michael John Liu Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 2:47 am
It seems to me you wanted to be a comedian. Or just the life of the party!
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When I was in Kindergarten I wanted to be a Kindergarten teacher. When I was in 3rd grade I wanted to be a 3rd grade teacher. In high school I wanted to be a high school teacher. Now that I graduated, I’m totally lost. Maybe I am searching for a teacher to tell me what to do. =P
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Michael John Liu Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 2:36 am
you need to go back to school! or just find a life-mentor that isn’t too old so you won’t outlive them but you’ll continue to learn from them!
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When I was little I wanted to be a firefighter but I was dissuaded because I was told it was hard work with strange hours. Now I’m going to be a doctor, which is hard work with strange hours. I should have followed my dream…
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I wanted to be a jet fighter pilot. Then I found out that I was astigmatic and afraid of heights.
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I wanted to own an international (engineering/technology) business that would require (allow) me to fly all over the world. When I got older, I wanted to use the money, contacts, leverage I had to enter politics. I wonder when I started forgetting this dream.
My mom says that when I was little, I kept telling her my dream was to be a mom. However, after seeing what it requires to be a mom (and to deal with a dad), I’m much more hesitant, even as a child, to make such big claims.
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Michael John Liu Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 2:37 am
Wow, you had such specific aspirations! What are you pursuing now?
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i wanted to be a test pilot.
i wanted to be a photographer.
i wanted to be a bioengineer.
i wanted to be a nba ref.
i wanted to be a chef.
i’m gonna be a doctor.
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i’m with daniel =)
i wanted to be the president of the united states
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Loved this book growing up and pretty stoked about the film and its awesome soundtrack!
Growing up, all I thought I ever wanted was to become a lawyer. Even got as far as going to law school for a bit. Turns out, it wasn’t for me.
Now I’m trying to figure out the role/function I’d like to take on and in which industry I’d like to be in. Clear roadmap to follow. In the meantime, I’m having a great time working with a diverse group of people, collaborating on projects outside of my professional life, and developing my world lens through my interactions with others and my travels.
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Michael John Liu Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 2:45 am
What sort of work are you in now professionally? And I’m interested in what sort of projects you collaborate on outside of that? It’s always good to hear and get inspired!
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Michelle Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I work for an international professional services firm, handling MarComms and Business Development. Outside of my professional life, I’ve done some freelance writing, worked with some grassroots orgs for various fundraising initiatives, started learning a new language just because it was lovely and finding my way back into music. It’s a constant juggling act and things don’t always fall into place but I think what we do outside of work is just as important and ultimately makes a difference in how we grow, manage our various roles and deal with the day to day challenges of our function.
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I wanted to be a dog-sitter. I wanted to be a princess. I wanted to be a dog-sitting princess. That was kindergarten.
There was one thing I didn’t want to be. I didn’t want to be a teacher. However, I think my aspirations of becoming a dog-sitting princess stemmed from the fact that I’m decent at delegating and taking care of living beings. That’s exactly what teachers do.
So now, I’m pretty happy most of the time with being a teacher.
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Michael John Liu Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 2:34 am
I know you seek adventure but your job really comes with a lot of intangibles!
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I remember there was a time I wanted to be a paleontologist so I could spend all of my days excavating dinosaur bones. I loved Jurassic Park and curling up my index, middle and ring fingers to form little velociraptor claws.
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ginger Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 2:59 am
barney could use a replacement
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Michael John Liu Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 3:07 am
LOL. I never got into that creepy dinosaur but I guess he’s pretty mild compared to what kids are exposed to these days.
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I wanted to be an artist, ballerina, pro golfer, and mostly a national forest ranger. Now I’m a fashion designer (www.freedomandfashion.com check us out!), hip hop dancer and a major lazy ass
I guess if I try harder I can still become that ranger who gets to drive the 4×4 in the forest and warn friendly campers about scary bison and creepy bears. Then go off roading on my off days. And Varsity was as pro golf as I got :]
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Michael John Liu Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 3:08 am
You are an artist and dancer still! Varsity in golf is pretty good. I like playing too but I’m too poor for clubs. All I have is a pitching wedge right now.
I once took a personality test and forest ranger was on top of the job list. This was in sixth grade.
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ginger Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 3:40 am
REALLY!?! You are meant for the woods! Barney in the woods! dahaha…
I am super thankful for chill Asian parents who supported me in trying everything I wanted to (Except golf, I was forced into it because my dad was a golf instructor haha). I have a bad record for quitting everything that I’ve tried but in the end I believe we can’t run away from our God given passions/talents…
And why is it that so many kids want to be teachers when they are little? I remember stealing extra paper from my 2nd grade teacher to pretend I was a teacher at home with my best friend. Weird
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小さいころの夢はひとつだけでしたか？私は少なくとも数個ありました。 牧師様に抱っこされること、すなわちイエスキリストに抱っこされること。 あの歌の中にあった絵とそっくりだったのです。
多分イエスの元に置いていただくことで愛を感じ、育てられるとあの頃から思ってたのかもしれない。未だにこの夢を見るときがあります。それは私の目覚めを太陽の光でいっぱいにしてくれます。ただ昔と違うのは愛を感じていること。その愛を感じてこそ私に関して、仕事へのやりがいでもあり、仕事の内容にも関わってくるとつくづく感じます。
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Michael John Liu Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 1:10 am
あなたの投稿いただきありがとうございます！私はGoogleで翻訳。のような夢を見てください子供の頃！
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When I was in kindergarden, during our graduation we were asked to share what we wanted to be when we grew up. I wanted to be a dentist. I never had that fear of going to the dentist. I think I wanted to be a dentist because I loved playing the video games they had in the waiting room.
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i think i speak for all the boys when i say i wanted to be a ninja turtle…. deep inside, we all wished that swirly that we got in school could cause us to mutate into some martial art-ass whooping reptile who can eat pizza every day.
or a garbage truck driver. why ? cuz being able to operate the forks to dump some trash was jst the coolest thing ever !!! EVER !!!
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hahaha, ditto Andrew. I digged the garbage trucks and wanted to be a driver when I was a toddler; every morning I would watch the garbage truck come & work the trash cans from an apt. room window above.
Then in elementary school the dream job somehow turned into being a scientist….
and then finally in HS I wanted to wander the earth like a mysterious nomad, learning and experiencing what the world’s people have to offer.
haha..we’ll see where that goes.
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in chronological order:
. sabrina the teenage witch
. movie director
. gardener
. teacher
. missionary
i wouldn’t mind being two inches taller either.
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I wanted to be a postwoman. I thought it was the coolest thing to drive on the wrong side of the car and not have to close your door and stick stuff in people’s mail boxes and put their flag up.
Ditto Jenn on the 2 inches taller
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Ever since I was a child, I’ve had a passion for flight and politics. And even in college, I have these passions. When I was little, I wanted to become an airline pilot for British Airways or American American and fly their Boeing 747-400 (which pilot-kid didn’t want to?). Also, I wanted to become the President of the USA.
More recently, I’ve wanted to become a professor. But I also still want to fly.
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I’m 52 and my childhood aspirations were to be either a choreographer or a costume designer. My musical talents are limited to finding the play button on any of my music generating devices (radio, cd player, mp3 player…. ). I can’t keep time to music and my klutz factor is to the power of 10.
However, I am an accomplished seamstress. I have done sewing for brides and am interested in sewing Civil War and Renaissance costumes. I also enjoy drafting my own patterns. Would love to take a costume design course.
Stephany
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