What did you want to be when you grew up?

A farmer like my uncle.

I wanted to be a dancer with Pan’s People on Top Of The Pops, my favourite TV show.
I used to practice in the kitchen when nobody was there. A very bizarre ambition, because I’m shy, and nothing on earth would persuade me to perform anything in front of anyone!

I was fascinated by Roman and Egyptian history and wanted to be an archaeologist. I was told by my teachers that I had to study Ancient Greek. Having just failed my Latin O’ level I didn’t think that this dream could become a reality.

A circus performer.

I wanted to be a teacher but the nearest I got was listening to children read at the local Primary School.

I became a University Administrator.

I wanted to be a teacher and was a very bossy small girl. Then a librarian because I loved reading. Then l flirted with being an air hostess as a teenager but the careers advisor put me off that. I considered acting too as I was involved in Youth Theatre. Ultimately I went to university and did a joint degree in English and Librarianship. I was a librarian for twelve years then an English teacher for well over twenty years. Acting was something I did in my leisure time.

A flamenco dancer.

A geologist, after I'd got my degree at Cambridge.
Thwarted by the army. We were an army family and were moved at a critical point in my education when I had to leave my excellent grammar school to somewhere far inferior where I lost all motivation. Probably wouldn't have happened anyway as my parents weren't well off and Mum wasn't inclined to send a girl to university.
Had it happened though, I wouldn't have had my dear DH and children who meant/mean far more to me.

David Cassidy’s wife.
Away from my horrible parents.
I had very little ambition.

Grannybags

A famous showjumper with a stable full of gorgeous horses

Snap Grannybags didn't make it to be famous, but have competed at a local level in eventing and showjumping. Still own ponies in my old age

I wanted to be a ballerina. Ballet dominated my life from the age of 9 to 14, when reality kicked in and I realised I just didn’t have the talent. I also grew rather too tall, although I had the right sort of slender/skinny figure. Ah well. I became a lecturer in English, much more prosaic.

In charge of my own life basically.

As an armed forces brat and brought up by a mother who was not a "mum" and had been brought up in her turn by a (grand)mother meant her ideas of motherhood were a generation out of date.

So I was making myself a lot of promises that:
- I was never going to have someone else move me again
- I'd have a warm house
- I'd eat what I decided I would (including plenty of fresh fruit). Yep...it wasnt a healthy diet she fed me.
- I'd wear exactly what I chose

Just generally making my decisions for myself. I didn't like being a child and was assured that, as a baby, I was very prone to screaming and crying etc and would only calm down when I was handed to my father - at which point he got the "goo goo eyes and I shut up and snuggled up" treatment.

So - I was distinctly pleased when the age of majority got reduced from 21 to 18 not long before I got to 18 and thought my mother would stop trying to make my decisions for me three years earlier. She didn't stop and I was still at school (ie so not financially independent) and so it didn't take that long after I left school at 18 to emigrate to Denmark (I came back again - and that's a whole other story of reappearing back in England and getting a bedsit to move away from her).

So yep - grown-up and independent and I didn't think much beyond that (other than assuming I'd get married and climb the housing ladder to a detached house).

I wanted to work with animals. In my teens I realised my poor science and maths abilities meant I couldn’t be a vet. At 17 I wanted to join the police dog or horse teams. My dad was a senior officer in CID and advised me police cadets or officers were directed, didn’t get to select their chosen area of work. He added that police work wasn’t a job for women. Years later he apologised for his previous views on women. He said in recent years he’d worked with excellent female officers and now believed I could have been one

MissChateline

I was fascinated by Roman and Egyptian history and wanted to be an archaeologist. I was told by my teachers that I had to study Ancient Greek. Having just failed my Latin O’ level I didn’t think that this dream could become a reality.

Me too!

When I was 60 I finally went to go on a dig!

Now maybe I should start taking ballet lessons??

What I wanted to be varied from day to day. But I never wanted to be a police officer, in the armed forces, a secretary or a nurse.

When I was about 8 read a book called Jean becomes a nurse and I was hooked.
Became a nurse!!
Best financial decision I ever made.
Enabled me to work in Switzerland for a couple of years and meant I could always get work wherever I was.
Also very rewarding experience.
But I should have read " Anne becomes a lawyer"

What I became.

Life also went almost identical to how I "planned" it. Until now.

I imagined I would live life where I am now, quite happily until I died.

Not as sure now.
Several factors may change that. Either against my will or my choice. I dont know about that either.

A ballerina until aged eight when I learnt to ride then a show jumper and finally an artist .
I also thought that I could be a missionary as going to church and having missionary neighbours were strong influences in my childhood .
I have to smile when I look back .

Aged about 9, my desired future career was to be that of an air hostess, and preferably with BOAC for these deeply considered reasons, I liked the shoulder bag, I liked the hat and I wanted to travel. I hadn't factored over the course of years to come, fortunately after I'd seen many places by then, that I would come to hate flying, the job appears to involve lugging a trolley up and down a narrow isle, whilst placating, at times, rude and difficult people and on maturity and having worn something similar in girl guides, the hat lost its appeal. Anyway, soon after I harboured that childhood desire I was to fall off my bike and chip a front tooth to which my mother pronounced "oh dear! you won't be able to be an air hostess now!" so from that time on all thoughts were banished. When a friend and I were aged about 19 or so we bumped into a school acquaintance who proudly deludedly announced "I'm an air hostess with Dan Air now" to which my friend replied "I'm so sorry to hear that" I wouldn't have dared.

Air hostess was definitely the most glamorous job in the world. I met a few in the 1950s when we flew from NZ in BOAC 36 seater constellations or Delta in the pre jet age.

The hostesses were elegant and stylish.
They must have put up with a lot even then. Fat, cigar smoking American businessmen, children (us) vomiting.

I wanted to go to art school because I wanted to be an art student. I knew one or two and they wore wacky clothes and looked interesting. So I did. I'm still working as a potter in my 70s so it wasn't a bad choice for me.

An infant teacher, an atomic scientist. Both careers I was totally unsuitable for.

I then thought very seriously about becoming a barrister, being a solicitor did not appeal, but back then (early 1960s) to become a barrister, you needed to know someone to get into chambers and a private income or some help from home for the first 5 years. Neither of which I could do, so I moved over the Chartered Accountancy because I was good at arithmetic.

I graduated with a degree in economics, did six months training and realised i was unsuited to accountancy aand then by chance I got a job in the economic deprtment of a big company - and I found my home, doing the economic and business reearch that senior excutives needed to make their decisions, and essentially did that in many different guises for the rest of my working life, and loved it.

Nowadays, I would have read history and become an academic. I am a researcher to the core of my soul.

Firstly a nurse, then when I achieved that, a Social Worker. Only in later years did I come to realize the unseen pressures I had experienced. My constant love has been gardening...and that is what I would choose now.

When I was in my very early teens I wanted to be a courtesan. I thought it a lovely word but had no real idea as to what it was. I think I had read somewhere that they were showered with jewels. Sounded good to me.

A hotel receptionist. I just thought it was glamorous meeting all those people and staying in nice surroundings. Ended up as a nursery teacher!

I’m jealous!!