When you were kid , what did you want to be when you became an adult?

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Many participants in the discussion shared their childhood aspirations, ranging from wanting to be a shopkeeper, wrestler, or movie star to more unique ambitions like mad scientist or garbage man. Some expressed a shift in interests over time, with aspirations evolving into fields like electronics, astrophysics, or becoming a professional pilot. Experiences, such as helping a dentist or visiting a dirty zoo, influenced some to abandon their initial dreams. The conversation also touched on the whimsical nature of childhood dreams, with humor about the unrealistic expectations of superpowers and the complexities of adult responsibilities. Ultimately, the thread reflects a nostalgic exploration of how childhood ambitions shape adult perspectives on career and identity.
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career wise

i wanted to be either a shop keeper or a wrestler - neither happened.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Professional socker player :)
 
a movie star

I am not one now but my neighbors always keep the camera on me.
 
I remember not wanting to become an adult.
So far so good...
 
Paleontologist. My interests have since changed.
 
I wanted to be a garbage man. Garbage men get to rid on the outside of the trucks, jumping on and off the running boards, and that looked like fun.
 
A shaman
 
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I always wanted to be a mad scientist. Each year at the beginning of school, we had to write a "What I want to be when I grow up". I would always write about why I wanted to be a mad scientist working in my laboratory (pronounce la BOR a tor ee). And at the bottom I would draw a figure of the cliche mad scientist with long grey hair in a lab coat holding up a flask. My teachers avoided me. This was in elementary school, starting at age 7-8.
 
I think I wanted to be a movie star first...and then it moved on to being the CEO of a big company...and then a rich guy who does physics on the side...I'm still hoping for that last one...LOL
 
  • #10
A doctor.

When I was 15 or so, I spent several weeks helping my dentist when his usual assistant was on maternity leave. That cured me of any notion of going into the medical field.
 
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  • #11
forest ranger
 
  • #12
Anything but this. :)

OldFart.jpg
 
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  • #13
I wanted to be a zoologist, but when I went to a really dirty zoo and I saw a simian I changed my mind!PS: This thread reminds me of this quote:
"I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific!"
 
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  • #14
I wanted to be a mathematician, but my parents talked me out of it because the money isn't good. There was also a time I wanted to be a computer engineer, and then my parents talked me out of it as well because one of their friends worked himself to death as a programmer (which is different to a computer engineer, but I didn't know the difference, and neither do my parents).
 
  • #15
I wanted to be the store clerk who wraps gifts, it seemed like a really fun job to me. When I realized there was more within my reach, I wanted to become an astronaut.
 
  • #16
Monique said:
I wanted to be the store clerk who wraps gifts, it seemed like a really fun job to me. When I realized there was more within my reach, I wanted to become an astronaut.

Since you have become a member of the sisterhood, is there anything left ?
 
  • #17
Dr.D said:
I wanted to be a garbage man. Garbage men get to rid on the outside of the trucks, jumping on and off the running boards, and that looked like fun.
I can only assume that you live in a different climatic zone than I do.

Evo said:
I always wanted to be a mad scientist.
Well, you're half-way there...
Shall we start a poll to determine which half? :p

For me, from the age of around 6 or so I never wanted to be anything other than a professional pilot. (Damned medical groundings... :mad:)
 
  • #18
@ Danger: I grew up far down in south Texas where it is quite warm 364 days a year. Our garbage men (before the days of modern trucks with lift arms and compactors) would run along side the truck, jumping on and off, throwing the full cans up to another fellow who stood in the collected garbage to empty the cans and throw them back down. This was long, long ago and no longer has much appeal to me now. Somehow, much of life is rather like standing in the garbage, trying to work, and I'm no longer interested in that.
 
  • #19
I wanted to be an electronics engineer ever since I was 5.
 
  • #20
@ thankz:

And did you really understand, at age 5, what an electronics engineer does?
 
  • #21
I want to design and build autonomous robots when I grow up. I'm still halfway there... ;)
 
  • #22
jerromyjon said:
I want to design and build autonomous robots when I grow up. I'm still halfway there... ;)
I'm sure I'm past the halfway mark, also sure I don't want to know when I passed it:eek:
 
  • #23
to dr.d

yes I knew what an electronics engineer does lol, I used to take apart everything and I had my own collection of electronics and magnets!

I still have a paper from kindergarten that asked us what we wanted to be, I wrote down astronaut, scientist, electronics engineer, doctor, soldier.

I remember my prism, chemistry set, crystal radio that I had to beg for when I was young, I also remember stealing geranium diodes from radio shack because I thought they were the same as dilthium crystals used on star trek. no one ever gave me a formal education but I picked things up along the way and learn to read schematics on my own from those radio shack 100in1 kits, I've built quite a few things. I guess I always knew what I wanted to be.

edit: and if I had the time id be an applied mathematian, ee, computer scientist, general surgeon, geneticist, and nuro scientist.
 
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  • #24
thankz said:
I also remember stealing geranium diodes from radio shack
Uh... that's botany, not electronics.

Doc, I remember seeing that kind of garbage collection both on Yank TV such as The Untouchables or Perry Mason or whatever, and know that it was done here when I was a kid (except I seldom saw it in person because I lived on farms). Here, when it was -50° with a metre of snow on the ground, those old galvanized steel cans were frozen to the ground with such tenacity that the driver would sometimes have to nudge one with the truck just to break it loose for his partner. :))
 
  • #25
-50* now that's just messed up living IMHOoo)
 
  • #26
RonL said:
-50* now that's just messed up living IMHOoo)
Then you probably don't want to know what it was with the wind-chill factor...
 
  • #27
Danger said:
Then you probably don't want to know what it was with the wind-chill factor...
Don't want to hear it, got up this morning all cranky because it got down to 46 degrees here ( a real blizzard as for as I'm concerned:))
 
  • #28
RonL said:
got up this morning all cranky because it got down to 46 degrees
You're just sick. :p
In all honesty (really, I'm not kidding), when spring rolls around and it gets up to 10—15° here (50—60° F), we're out on the lawn in shorts and T-shirts with a box of beer.

edit: Damn! I suppose it's my own fault; speak of the devil and all that...
When I typed the first part of this, it was a nice sunny evening with my hedge in its normal brown and green clothing, birds crapping on my car, and all of that BBQ-weather stuff. I went out to sit by my door in the kitchen in wait for my delivery dude, and by the time my chicken roganjosh and saffron rice and beer arrived, my hedge was whiter than my own head and there was 6 cm of snow in my yard. We're now at 0° under a "Severe Snowfall Warning" and the precipitation rate is escalating. I am severely tempted to turn my thermostat up for the evening.
 
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  • #29
I wanted to have superpowers. Of my realistic wishes, Scientist was top on the list.
 
  • #30
Dr.D said:
@ Danger: I grew up far down in south Texas where it is quite warm 364 days a year. Our garbage men (before the days of modern trucks with lift arms and compactors) would run along side the truck, jumping on and off, throwing the full cans up to another fellow who stood in the collected garbage to empty the cans and throw them back down. This was long, long ago and no longer has much appeal to me now. Somehow, much of life is rather like standing in the garbage, trying to work, and I'm no longer interested in that.
In North Shore in New Zealand, garbage trucks are operate by one person in each, he will drive in front of a house, hop off, grab and throw the bags of rubbish (we don't use trash cans there for household rubbish) to the compressor at the back, and then hop back onto the driver seat, drive to the next house then rinse and repeat. Does that sound closer to what you were interested in?
 
  • #31
A fireman.
 
  • #32
I've always wanted to be an astrophysicist. My stepfather would talk about stars, black holes, space-time, gravity and so on. He'd speak about it in an easy-to-understand way so that I could have a decent picture of what was going on. I'm now working toward my dream.
 
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  • #33
As a kid I wanted to become a genius inventor because what better way of demonstrating my genius by inventing something extraordinary? Now here I am in my early twenties, just a few months away from said goal. I may be the guy after all or just another crackpot.
 
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  • #34
When I was a child, I had wanted to become either a hotshot lawyer (probably from watching old reruns of Perry Mason) or a doctor. By the time I went to high school, my interests switched to more interest in the sciences.
 
  • #35
As a kid, I realized the responsibilities that adults (my mother, in particular) had, so I wasn't in a hurry to stop being a kid.

I idolized some sports figures, but I was only somewhat above average at sports, so I knew that I would never come close to being a professional athlete.

From age 9 to 13, I wanted to be an astronomer, from age 13 to 16, I wanted to work in electronics, and, influenced by Euclidean geometry and a BBC program called "Key to the Universe", from 16 on, it was a toss-up between theoretical physics and pure maths.
 
  • #36
Geneticist.
I think I just wanted to make real superhero...turns out making x-ray vision is a bit harder than I thought when I was 7.
 
  • #37
wukunlin said:
In North Shore in New Zealand, garbage trucks are operate by one person in each, he will drive in front of a house, hop off, grab and throw the bags of rubbish (we don't use trash cans there for household rubbish) to the compressor at the back, and then hop back onto the driver seat, drive to the next house then rinse and repeat. Does that sound closer to what you were interested in?

That is much more efficient and modern that the career I had in mind. Back when I was a kid (long, long ago), garbage truck operation involved at least three men. There was the driver who did nothing but drive in short bursts, the can emptier who tromped around in the trash on top of the pile in the back of the truck and received the thrown cans of loose trash, and (my dream job) the guy who jumped off the truck, picked up the can and threw the lid of the ground (with some damage, if he was good at his work), threw the can up to the man on top and then caught the returned can before jumping back on the running board to ride to the next house. What could be more fun than that?
 
  • #38
HizzleT said:
...turns out making x-ray vision is a bit harder than I thought when I was 7.
The trick is that you have to disable the safety interlocks on your microwave oven so you can turn it on while your head is in there...

Dr.D said:
What could be more fun than that?
I can think of at least 2 things.
 
  • #39
Weird - I wanted to be a mad scientist ... I had the Professor Brainstorm books.
 
  • #40
historian or musician
 
  • #41
Silly me. I wanted to be a god! But then again i always got reminded by my nun teacher to get serious. That didn't go well..
 
  • #42
julcab12 said:
Silly me. I wanted to be a god!
So did I, but I realized that it would be pretty hypocritical of me as an Atheist. And really... what good could I be to anyone else if I didn't believe in myself?
 
  • #43
Danger said:
So did I, but I realized that it would be pretty hypocritical of me as an Atheist. And really... what good could I be to anyone else if I didn't believe in myself?
I am, therefore I don't exist? o_O
 
  • #44
Airline pilot
 
  • #45
Borg said:
I am, therefore I don't exist? o_O
Perhaps. I'd have to confer with Heisenberg to figure that one out.
 
  • #46
Danger said:
Perhaps. I'd have to confer with Heisenberg to figure that one out.
Maybe time is messin' with you or... :nb)
 
  • #47
julcab12 said:
Maybe time is messin' with you or... :nb)
I'm not sure about "messing with me", but it certainly hasn't been kind to me.
 
  • #48
Danger said:
I'm not sure about "messing with me", but it certainly hasn't been kind to me.
.. And still, you collapsed as expected;)
 
  • #49
julcab12 said:
.. And still, you collapsed as expected;)
Not precisely as expected. I don't believe in Superdeterminism either.
 
  • #50
Danger said:
Not precisely as expected. I don't believe in Superdeterminism either.
lol. Fair enough..
 

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