Back in my early years I aspired to be a vet. I had visions of being surrounded by fluffy kittens and cute rabbits dressed in a white coat with a fancy stethoscope. From the rather dodgy polaroid above you’ll see I wasn’t afraid of reptiles so would have thought nothing of tending to a python. Let’s not mention the hairband my sister’s wearing shall we?! Aged seven the bubble burst when I was told I’d have to study for at least five years and put animals ‘to sleep’. This revelation kind of took the edge off it.
My knowledge of available jobs was limited to those around me; a vet looked after my beloved cat, my mum worked in the nursing profession, I always looked up to my teachers and my dad grafted away in manual labour roles. Aged five I could never have contemplated the future me would make a living from writing on the internet. Who even knew what the internet was back then?!
As a little one you have no concept of salary, responsibilities or education, you just dream of doing fun or exciting things every day. As a child one of my closest friends was fixated on the steering wheel of a bus and from that point had ambitions on becoming a bus driver. Now she surrounds herself with precious stones on a daily basis dealing in diamonds. Slightly more glamorous.
A few of the team at Rock My Limited had some fairly varied ambitions, though a fashion and sugar rush theme did emerge….
Lolly
Inspired by the stories of Follyfoot Farm, I was determined to be a horse farm owner when I was younger. Never mind the fact that I was actually terrified of anything larger than a shetland pony after one bolted with me on the back of it. My other passion was to be a wedding dress designer – I’d spend hours concocting magnificent puffy creations and naming them after famous film stars. You might say that I’ve semi fulfilled the bridal ambition through Rock My Wedding…
Charlotte
I wanted to own a sweet shop. Shelves and shelves of huge apothecary jars filled with pink powder coated Bon Bons and strawberry laces. There was no ambition in terms of cold hard cash involved in my choice, purely a desire to consume what would have been the entire profit margin in stock.
My father was unimpressed with my potential future position as Queen of sherbet lemons, not least because he was a ….Dentist.
Miranda
When I was little I wanted to be a newsagent, imagining days spent reading magazines and eating sweets, mostly cola cubes, my sugar fix of choice. I completely ignored the not-so-fun elements of the job such as the early starts to organise the paper rounds and seven day week all year round, with only Christmas Day off. Holiday, what holiday?!
The only other career I ever considered seriously was police detective, inspired by my love of shows like Juliet Bravo and Prime Suspect, going as far as chatting to the team on the police desk at school careers fairs. I suppose the investigation side of things has similarities to my eventual career as a journalist.
I still get the odd hankering for a life of solving crime but I definitely enjoy creating magazines far more than I ever would have done selling them, however many cola cubes I got to eat.
Lorna
Gosh it sounds incredible vain but I wanted to be a model! Not because I thought I was pretty but more for my love of clothes (yes even at that age – I blame Tammy Girl) and playing dress up. Failing that I wanted to be a dancer like the girls in the pop videos as I was always prancing around my living room making up hideous dance routines. I even made one up to The Clothes Show theme tune by The Pet Shop boys involving a catwalk-esque strut!
Lottie
In terms of what I wanted to be when I grew up it was probably a fashion designer. We used to spend hours drawing dresses and clothes lines which we then put together in a catalogue, a la Kays catalogue. I was aiming high obviously! In fact I think I still have some of them in the loft. I remember one that was a whole space inspired collection with lots of silver and star motifs. Lets just say I was not the best fashion designer in the world!
Now it’s over to you. When you were a child what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you aim high and predict a bright future? Did you end up in the profession you’d always hoped to or did your career path take a completely different route? Would love to hear what your own kids are planning to be when they reach adulthood too.
P.S. Don’t forget to nip back to RMS tomorrow for our new Saturday feature. Have a great bank holiday weekend.
Personally I think we need a whole post on the delightful headbands of the 80’s/90’s! I remember a rather large collection of padded velvet numbers. Beautiful! x
True Lottie, it would make a great post! We could talk all about that very weird thing that used to happen when you pushed your fringe back with the band and then forward again (hope I’m making sense!) x
OMG I had blocked that out of my mind. That was my hair style every.single.day
Haha I agree! I think I had one with my name on it!!
Oh god, Lauren, I always used to do that! Gave a bit of a poofy fringe. Marianne, I was never allowed one with my name on. I was rather upset by that as a child. Sorry, seem to have taken the post off topic here! x
There was never anything with my name on when I was little! It seems ‘Lauren’ only became popular about fifteen years ago.
Agree! As a child I was desperate to find a magnet or a keyring or a hairband with my name on and it just wasn’t available. Now it seems like everyone is called Lauren when I wish it wasn’t so popular!
Hi Lauren, such a fun post for a Friday! When I was little I was quite fickle about what I wanted to be when I grew up. Choices varied from being a nurse to be being the first female England football manager for the mens team! However these thought dalliances never lasted long. I do however remember consistently desiring to be a singer with a full on octave range like Mariah Carey. I would sing into my hair brush in front of the mirror A LOT! So imagine my shock when I realised that I couldn’t actually sing! Still gutted! So long residency in Vegas. x
Ha ha Liz. I too was devastated when I found out I couldn’t sing. It’s a shame some of those X-factor contestants haven’t had the same revelation x
I could have been your backing dancer Liz! We would’ve made quite an interesting pop video (more like a blooper) as I couldn’t actually dance either! x
You can dance!
The first thing I ever wanted to be (much to my parent’s consternation) was a prostitute! We had just taken a flight from the UK to Hawaii when Pretty Woman had come out and I’d watched the edited version about three times on the flights and was obsessed with it. I told my parents I’d decided to do that – my seven year old self just saw dressing up, nice hotels and fancy shops, what’s not to love?!
Oh Kate you’ve made me laugh out loud! Your parents must have been stunned!
Is it sad that I wanted to be a lawyer and I now am one! Although my childhood vision of being a lawyer is not quite what it turned out to be in reality! Happy weekend everyone! x
Not sad at all Marianne. I admire anyone who decided early on what they wanted to be.
Have a fab weekend too. x
My favourite when I was little had to be my ‘post office’!!!
I LOVED my post office toy – popping it up, opening the shutter, playing with stationery! (still do adore pretty paper goods)
I also loved playing shop at my grandparents. They had a shed full of tiny little glass jars that I was obsessed with and would set up shop in there and sell them to the family!
So I guess I wanted to be a shop owner!
Also, LOVED those velvet headbands & YES, you had to push your fringe back with it & then bring it forward a little to get that perfect quiff! Oh how long I would spend doing that every day!
Fab Friday post guys, has made me smile thinking of all my childhood memories xxx
I had the post office too Rebecca! And many days spent playing shop at my grandparents too. I was always desperate to have my own beepy scanner. I worked at Sainsbury’s on the checkouts when I was at uni and finally got my own scanner. The novelty had worn off then unfortunately x
Age 10/11: fashion designer Age 13: pathologist (blame Silent Witness and that show with John Hannah in it) in my teens the career quizzes at school always came out Librarian or Archivist. I actually worked really hard and became an Archivist only to end up in not so fun towns of Barrow-in-Furness and Ashington (had to move where the work was). My “best” Archivist role was on the Hillsborough Disclosure Project – utterly fascinating and worthwhile. I’m now an admin monkey for an executive search firm and after years of uncertainty in the public sector I couldn’t be happier. The team I work with are really fun and you’re not looking for the knife in your back! One day I’d love to do something creative – my husband would love for me to make a living from my sewing machine!
Gosh Claire what a compelling project to work on. I’m a Sheffield girl and my city has been haunted by the Hillsborough disaster, so like you say, so worthwhile.
Such a great Friday post!
When I was younger I had this weird obsession with Michael Fish (the weatherman…). So I decided I want to be a weather girl, so I could meet Michael. I then wanted to be a supermarket checkout girl, because the ‘beep beep’ bit looked so much fun (I did actually fulfil this ‘dream’ when I was 16 for my weekend job…), before deciding I was going to be an air hostess because then I would be allowed to wear lipstick. In my teens I had a brief dalliance with wanting to be a lawyer when I discovered Ally McBeal, before weirdly actually considering trying to be a weather girl. Clearly didn’t work out, because I’m now a Management Consultant – far less fun than reading the weather!
Hi Sian, yes we thought the start of the bank holiday weekend called for a light hearted post.
I remember going to a museum where you could have a go at news reading and weather presenting. The queue was huge!
Kate your post is hilarious! I can’t imagine what your parents thought when you made that announcement!
I had high aspirations as a child as my dream job was working on the checkout at Tesco. I thought it looked fun scanning all the items and making the machine beep. My other ambition was to become a ballerina. I sadly didn’t fulfill that desire but I do go to adult ballet classes so I’m trying to keep the dream alive!
I’ve just scheduled a Facebook post for this afternoon using a pic of Julia Roberts!
Love that you keep the dream alive by going to classes. I don’t even have any pets (other than a few fish in my pond) so I’m definitely not keeping my dream alive! x
Whenever I was asked this question, my answer was always “I want to be a hairdryer!”…I have a number of photos of my being a “hairdryer”…
I love asking this question to my boys. The eldest wants to “discover a forgotten land” and my youngest wants to be a policeman or a footballer, he’s not decided yet!
How unusual Cerys! A very helpful item though!
I have a very definite memory of wanting to be in the mounted police when I was about 9. Kids are weird.
Ha ha Claire. I reckon that would be pretty cool.
I wanted to be an astronaut! I think it was watching the film Space Camp that did it….
Lynn – the idea of space terrifies me. I think it’s because I can’t even begin to get my head round how enormous and endless it is and why it and we and everything exists. I used to have nightmares when I was little about being an astronaut and drifting in space until I died. So that would definitely not be on my top careers picks!
I wanted to own a shoe shop – my Nana who used to have hundreds of pairs and I would pull them of her cupboards and play shop with them. I am still obsessed with shoes today! Either that or I wanted to be a hairdresser. Today I am a civil servant so *slightly * different…
Wow. Hundreds of shoes – my idea of heaven! x
I always wanted to be a hairdresser when I was younger. I did try and fulfil the dream and worked in a hairdressers from 15-17. Unfortunately I picked the wrong place to work and was bullied a bit so I left. I did enjoy the training and am still pretty good at dying my own hair and I have cut fringes into my friends hair several time since to good effect. I can’t remember why I didn’t pursue training to be a hairdresser elsewhere.
Seeing as it is a Friday afternoon I am currently daydreaming about being an amateur wine connoisseur. I might give this a go at 5:00pm!!
Claire we can be amateur wine connoisseurs together…bring on 5pm 😉
Firstly that hairband was dual purpose. Not only to hold bank terrible hair but also to dry myself after a bath.
Secondly, I always knew I was going to be a teacher but suppressed that urge for a while, thinking it was dull. Ten years into my job I can say it’s anything but. It can drive me to tears of desperation and the next day whoops of joy. I can safely say there is no other profession like it, particularly when you are working in one of the most deprived areas of the country. Whether I make another 10 years is yet to be seen though. With a conservative government we are screwed!!!!
I think I had one of those hairbands too but I mustn’t have worn it that day 😉
Great stories! I was fickle and at one point wanted to own my own riding school (keen horse rider) and spend my days riding and grooming the horses and showjumping at a world class level obvs! And then went through being a vet which included setting up my own little office in my room and butchering my innocent teddies and stitching them back up using my mums sewing box, touch and go stuff! Then wanted to be a Dr so did similar injuries to dolls etc my dad got me a white drs coat and a real stethoscope so I thought I was the real deal! Ended up being a nurse and having a dog and rabbit so I guess somewhere near lol!
My husband always wanted to be a physio from being really young oddly and is one now, kind of makes my other less realistic ideas of Hollywood actress or singer look great ha! Was I the only one that would use various house hold ornaments and pretend they were oscars? Complete with full acceptance speech thanking my husband Joshua Jackson?! X
I never got as far as butchering the teddies. Love this story!
I wanted to be a lawyer – then on my work experience i realised it was nothing like LA Law and that I needed to get really good A-levels so it went out the window.
I ended up not having a clue but inadvertently ended up being a careers advisor – oh the irony!! Having spent years helping other people work out what they wanted to do I finally figured it out for myself and have now gone back to Uni and am training to be a midwife. I could not be happier and feel I am doing what I am meant to do.
My daughter wants to be a Vet during the week and a Dr at the weekends!
So glad you’ve found your vocation Rachel.
Your little one is going to be extremely busy when she grows up!
It’s not my ambition but my niece always wanted to be either an owl or a clock. Sadly, I don’t think she’ll be either.
My friend was telling me about a game show the other day where one half of a couple dresses up as a wild animal?! She could get her dream to be an owl by going on that? Or maybe not….
Oh my god, I am laughing so much at the wannabe prostitute, hairdryer and owl or clock.
I wanted to own a pet shop. So I could have lots of pets. Hadn’t thought much further than that clearly. My husband wanted to be a train driver like his granded.