List 6: What I Want(ed) to Be When I Grow Up

As a child I did not aspire to be an IT project manager, yet that is what I am. Below are 40 other things I’ve wanted to be in my lifetime. Many are childhood dreams long outgrown. A few are more recent aspirations. A lot of these careers were fleeting daydreams, but other thoughts have persisted for years.

Some of these could be additions to my list of unattainable goals. Some are still possibilities. Some are things I’ve done or still do, although always under the sustaining financial umbrella of my day job.

In rough chronological order of when I first considered each:

1. Ballerina
2. Singer
3. Actor
4. Disney tour guide
5. Astronaut
6. Food critic
7. Teacher
8. Inventor
9. Writer
10. Car salesman
11. Veterinarian
12. Pace car driver
13. Figure skater
14. Model
15. Lawyer
16. Fly Girl on In Living Color
17. Harley Davidson certified mechanic
18. “In marketing”
19. Ring girl
20. Event planner
21. First female president of U.S. Steel
22. Interior decorator
23. Theatrical director
24. Chief information officer (CIO)
25. Managing Director of a theater
26. Cartoon voice talent
27. Children’s bookstore owner
28. Choreographer
29. College professor
30. Baker
31. Playwright
32. Chief information security officer (CISO)
33. Caterer
34. Foreign service officer
35. Cryptographer
36. Linguist
37. Bikram yoga instructor
38. Google Doodle thinker-upper
39. Social media director
40. Stay at home mom (SAHM)

Are you what you always wanted to be?