What you wanted to be at ten years old versus what you actually became

[NoMercyMatthew89]

A gentle census with occasionally devastating answers. Cast your mind back to age ten and report what you told adults you were going to be, then report what you actually became, and let the gap between the two answers do the talking

All gap sizes welcome, the astronaut who became an accountant, the footballer who became a PE teacher which is arguably the same dream with better job security, and the rare unicorns who called it exactly and became the vet, the pilot, the baker. The unicorns must tell us what that is LIKE

The follow up questions are where it gets interesting, does the ten year old's dream still visit you sometimes, did any thread of it survive into what you do now, and if you could send one sentence back to that kid, career related or otherwise, what is the sentence

No job snobbery in this thread in either direction, the dream was never really about the job title anyway, and the answers that prove that are the ones worth waiting for

[MondayMoan]

Wanted to be a marine biologist, became an IT manager, and the thread that survived is that I still fundamentally spend my days poking mysterious systems to see why they behave the way they do. The fish were a red herring

[Reacher Quarry]

The fish were a red herring is criminal and I applaud it

[Darren_20]

Unicorn checking in, said vet at ten, am a vet, and what it is LIKE is that the ten year old imagined the puppies and not the paperwork or the hard goodbyes. I would still send back the sentence, do it anyway

[Inland Aidan]

Wanted to be a wrestler, became a delivery driver, and the dream absolutely still visits, usually when a warehouse door needs a dramatic entrance. Some of us are performing to an audience of one forklift and that is fine

[QuietObserver34]

Astronaut to accountant representative here as prophesied in the opening post, and my defence is that both jobs are mostly checklists that prevent catastrophic outcomes. The ten year old would not accept this argument and honestly neither do I

[RomanReigns02]

Wanted to be a hairdresser, was told firmly to aim higher, became something higher, hated it, retrained at forty, am now a hairdresser. The sentence I would send back is do not let them talk you out of it, you were right the first time

[Frost Jay]

That answer should be framed somewhere where careers advisors have to walk past it daily

[RomanReigns]

Ten year old me wanted to be a bin man because they got to hang off the back of the truck, and the tragedy of modern health and safety is that even the dream job removed its best feature

[Reward Dragon]

Footballer to PE teacher as also prophesied, and the opening post is right, it IS the same dream with better job security, I get paid to be on a pitch every day and my knees still work. The gap was smaller than it looks

[Taker04]

Wanted to write books, became a nurse, and the thread that survived is I collect everyone's stories all shift long. Still might write the book, the material is now frankly overwhelming

[Velvet Sentinel]

The census pattern emerging is that the job titles changed and the underlying kid mostly did not, which is either comforting or a diagnosis depending on the day