It's a Tough Job: Tales about Your Dream Career and More

Hello sweeties!

A few weeks ago, a Twitter meme about your 5-year-old-self dream career and my own musings about jobs gave me the idea for this post. This is going to be a conversation prompt about the kind of job you wanted to do when you grew up, the one you got (instead?) and/or the one you would like to do one day. I'll go first...

CHRONOLOGY

PRIMARY SCHOOL. My memory is quite foggy about...well, most of my school years as a whole (I can't even remember my high school finals...). I wonder if I just blocked it all out because school never meant much for me, one way or the other. But for some strange reason, I remember a survey when I was in my first year of primary school. We got asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, and my answer was "a hairdresser". I can't for the life of me remember if I really meant it or not (though I guess I didn't - I have this vague recollection that I just said that because, well, I had to say something). I don't even understand what use it could possibly be to ask a bunch of 6 y.o. kids such a question. But looking at it now...I'm pretty sure I would have made a good hairdresser. I'm finicky as hell, have a great eye for details, and I even taught myself how to cut my own bangs...

***

SECONDARY SCHOOL. When I was a tween, I used to say I wanted to be a journalist when I grew up. For me, it meant to spend my working hours writing, which back then was already my favourite thing to do in the world (along with reading, that is). The problem is, I only envisioned myself writing - not actually going around LOOKING for things to talk about, or (goodness forbid) interviewing people. I suppose I thought that someone would turn the facts in to me, and I would simply weave my writing magic on them 😂.

***

HIGH SCHOOL. I didn't have any kind of job/career in mind. I enrolled in Classical High School because I didn't like math and the like. Period. I guess I should have planned my future better 🙄.

***

UNIVERSITY. I chose the English Language and Literature faculty because...duh, I loved English, and it came easily to me. Also, I was aware that its knowledge was likely to open a lot of doors. Except...I didn't have a clue what doors I ACTUALLY wanted to open back then. In retrospect, I was probably missing my hairdresser and journalist days...🤔

In the meantime (at 26), since I had always loved radio, I finally took a chance on it, and I started broadcasting for a small local radio station. It was just a hobby - little did I know that it would become a job in a few years. For your information, that station was going to close in six months. It would only be 3 years after that I found the courage to approach the last one still standing in my hometown, and start my radio host (non) career anew...(Yep, because it's not a career. It's a frigging joke. I will fill you in about it one day...).

When I was nearing my graduation, my aim was to become a novel translator (can you see a pattern here? Apart from the hairdresser incident, that is 😂). I sure as hell didn't want to be a teacher or an interpreter - I wanted to stay hidden in my cave and not having to deal with the unexpected...or, well, flesh-and-blood people in general. I ended up graduating without half a clue on how to become a translator. You see, that was before the internet age, and I didn't know where to turn to in order to learn WHAT to do to fulfill my, um, second-hand dream (because it wasn't like I thought of it as a dream career, exactly - but it was a decent one enough, if I couldn't do anything more creative).

*** 

ADULT. At 35, I still didn't have a clue what to do - and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to get there. In the meantime, radio had become a small source of income for me - besides broadcasting, I was doing secretary duty - but I never thought of it as a real job. Until I was lured with a "proper" contract, and I agreed to "temporarily" get paid for less hours than I was in fact working, and...I told to myself, what the hell, while I'm waiting for my future to happen. But that future became my past, and almost 18 years after, I'm still stuck there. Still under-payed. Still not knowing what (else) to do with my life, and how to get there 😥.

***

NOW. I had set my eyes on a job a few months ago, just because...well, it was a lot more money that I'm making now, and it was a change, and it wasn't completely terrifying. But I almost immediately got cut down to size. So here I am...fed up with something that I used to love (when it was a hobby, that is), with little money and a waste of education.

BONUS TOPICS

THE JOB I COULD NEVER, EVER DO. Teacher. Not even under a death threat. I admire the bold folks who choose that path so much. I would be TERRIFIED every single moment of every single day. Have I ever mentioned that I must have things under control and know what to expect if I don't want to fall apart? Plus, dealing with kids now...I've heard such stories...*shudders*

MY DREAM JOB NOW. I would kill for a job behind a computer desk, with as little interaction with "live" people as it's humanly possible. If the computer-for-the-masses age had started a few years in advance, I would probably have carved myself a nice place in it...

This was my journey in job-fantasising, or job-hunting (so to speak), and now I want to hear yours! What did you want to be when you were a kid? a teen? Did your dream job become reality? What do you want to be when you grow up?