If you could go back what would you be............?

I wanted to be a spy, or at the very least a codebreaker.

Glammanana, were you a GPO telephonist?
I wanted to be a nanny, but as a "war orphan" and in receipt of an allowance to help with my upbringing, we were visited once a year by an extremely posh lady, and she informed me that I really didn`t want to be a nanny, as that would just make me someone`s servant!

No doubt I would do it all again, college, business, marriage to the same girl, 3 daughters I have loved it all
Please can I do it again knowing what I know now!

I have no regrets career wise . Left school at 16 did a 2 year diploma and was a nursery nurse for many years in different fields and loved it.

Went to university in my 40’s and got 2 degrees and 2 post grad diplomas and am now a therapist which I also love and still do 1.5 days a week.

However got married at 19 to someone and stayed far too long in a dreadful marriage. The only good thing that came out of it were my beautiful children . Now working and living as I like and am really happy for the first time in my life in my 60’s.

Also think coming back as my very pampered cat would work well!

MiniMoon
Hand / machine sewing books and bookbinding was my trade. I loved it.

Not sure I would have done it differently but perhaps would have gone into nursing instead of catering college where I found I hated cooking and only enjoyed the typing classes. Self taught accounts due to husband starting a business and my fate was sealed.

I made my decision to be a nurse when I was 16 and it was absolutely the right decision for me. It suited me personally and also practically - there are only a few professional careers that allow you to take breaks and work flexibly.
I 'coasted' for a few years when the children were young, doing a few shift. Returned full time when I could, and because so many nurses did this, there was lots of support and understanding. I retired satisfied with a job done to the best of my ability.
I notice that in my children's generation there are people who were told 'oh, you can do better than nursing'. They went to university, got a rather impractical degree and have ended up in slightly unsatisfying jobs. So many have said to me 'I wish I'd stuck to the idea of nursing'.
Fortunately, nursing seems to have regained some status with young people now.

The careers advice we got at school was laughable. I wasn't a very good teacher, although I was conscientious (I hope), and I do enjoy teaching people. Private tutoring was more fulfilling in a way.

I eventually actually earned money from artwork, which was very satisfying.

However, I wish I had followed up my early interest in history and archaeology and become an archaeologist before I reached retirement age!

I would have completed my Nurse Training instead of walking out of it after 3 months. I so desperately want to be a midwife but sadly I have never had the opportunity since.

I would have loved to have been a singer .

I wish I'd had a career in law. Either litigation solicitor or High Court sheriff. Sadly I only discovered my talent in this field when I was too old to pursue it fully.

I worked in libraries, as a childminder, with mainframe computers, then as a teacher (after a degree in my forties).

I had a number of boyfriends, a fun and exciting first husband (I got bored so divorced him) a reliable, steady and interesting second husband, (we had four kids) and then I was widowed.

Apart from losing my dear husband far too soon, I wouldn't change a thing as it's been (overall) a real blast!

I wouldn't change anything.

I would have loved to have been a journalist - preferably features. I did HND Business Studies, and was even offered a job on a local paper, but it would have been unsocial hours covering flower shows, village fetes etc. and I was engaged at the time, and allowed him to talk me out of it. Had a good career as a secretary, PA and then University Admin Assistant, but always hankered after being Jean Rook!!!

I wanted to go to Italy as an au pair when I was 18. My DP refused to let me go. "You'll be raped" I was told and that was that.

I don't regret things at all but I sometimes wonder how different life would be had I made other choices.

It is not so much turning years back to be something else, because, when all is said and done I have enjoyed an interesting and remunerative career in a field that really interested me and so many of the good things in life: DH, children, opportunities to follow my interests and have interesting experiences have flowed from that, but Robert Graves wrote of choosing between two paths.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
............
In my case there were two other roads I would have liked to have explored more, one was becoming a child psychologist, the other a landscape archaeologist/historian. But I had no idea how you set about becoming a specialist Child Psychologist and someone, who should have known better introduced me to the other subject but never gave a hint that it could be a career, although that was the route she was going down.

I am not married to david but I wouldn't change anything. A few minor details along the way but those changes are probably available only with hindsight.

I should have listened to my dad and not got married so young 20
Don’t regret the children and the travelling but just about everything else Worked in library, retail, care, old folks homes, then a good career in nhs after the kids were grown
I d have loved to done something like forensics or a travel photographer or something arty
No not done what I should have

I’ve had a wonderful life but if not this - a human rights lawyer!

I wish I'd read Classics
I could have rivalled Mary Beard
Or modern languages, but definitely not to teach them

Happy with my work life and marriage ,left school at 15 against my parents wishes ,with no exams taken.Worked in a couple of studios where I met my husband ,got married at 21 and a year later we started our own business.

It has been an interesting and varied career,we've photographed 4000 weddings and at least the same portraits ,we've been in castles and village halls with brides of many nationalities and all ages .One who left school on the Friday at 16 and got married the next day ,our oldest who married a man she met in a care home in their 80's
Photographed celebrities and politicians ,even royalty ,climbed up oil rigs and my OH has flown under bridges to get the "right" shot .All in all it has been a blast .Thats not to say it was without problems ,there have been some "stoatirs" as we say in this neck of the woods ,I'd do it all again in a heartbeat .We've worked together for 45 years and been married for 44 and the business is still running...until we retire at the end of the year (so he says )

I wouldn’t want to go back,

Anniebach . Why read the thread / why post then?

Firstly, I wish I had been better daughter. Secondly, instead of training to be a teacher, I would have chosen to work in a library doing some sort of research work.

A female version of Jools Holland or Sylvan Zingg (a Swiss boogie woogie pianist). I was a professional speaker and a tutor in adult learning, previous to that I was a secretary and rubbish at it ?