Monday, June 25, 2012

Career

When I was little, I wanted to be a Dalek. No joke.

Dream Job

I used to wander around the playground at my infant school during lunch times, my cagoule’s hood pulled tight around my face, exterminating fellow pupils.

Surprisingly, I was mostly alone in this pursuit.

If I wasn’t being Doctor Who’s most awesome enemy I would be pretending to be a plane. Arms out for wings, air forced through pursed lips for convincing facsimile of a Spitfire’s Merlin engine, interspersed with the staccato “ack ack ack ack” of my machine guns.

Needless to say, twenty-five years on, I am neither a Dalek or a plane. If I was the former you’d be dead by now, and if I was the latter I wouldn’t be able to talk. Or type.

All of which means, I suppose, that I am not one of the 15% of children who (according to BBC Breakfast) manage to end up being what they wanted to be when they were young.

Not exactly a surprising figure though, is it? They were asking eight year old kids. Even the most forward thinking eight year old isn’t likely to say “well, I’ve considered my options carefully. Given my relative academic strengths, and with due consideration to work life balance, plus of course the need for financial security, that ideally I’d like to become an actuary”.

Predictably, there were a few who wanted to be professional footballers (actually, they didn’t specify professional, that’s me putting words in their mouths) and some more who wanted to be singers (well done Simon Cowell, the youth are yours now). There were a fair number of proto-police officers (who, I bet, actually want to be Daleks, but think the dome shaped helmet of the police is the closest they can get).

No-one wanted to be a lawyer. Or a banker. Or a salesperson. Or work in a shop.

Back in the studio, the presenters wondered, were we perhaps allowing our children to be too optimistic in their goals? Should we be stopping their wild flights of fancy (No, junior, don’t be ridiculous, you’ll never be a police officer, now go to your room and reconsider your aspirations) and promoting a more realistic aim?

Not in my opinion.

If someone had told the five year old me that I couldn’t be a Dalek, once I’d finished trying REALLY HARD to exterminate them, I’d have probably been rendered unspeakably melancholy by suggestions of sensible roles. In reality, even now, I look at most job descriptions and pine for those days of care free ignorance about the need to make money.

Job hunting is a long way off for Cam, thankfully. I already know that I want him to be clever. I hope he is. The genetic building blocks ought to be there. I did okay at school, and probably could have done better if I’d been a bit more motivated. Mrs L excelled at school and university.

Ideally, he’ll have inherited the best attributes from each of us. That would probably put him in a pretty good starting position.

I don’t want him to grow up thinking in wholly realistic terms. I want him to aim high, to be something fantastic, something enjoyable which also brings in enough cash. I want him to do better than I have (I’ve helped him out here by not being terribly successful). I want him to be awesome, and I want to do everything I can to help him. I want him to be the best he can be.

More than anything, I want him to be happy.

If he could work out how to turn a human into a Dalek along the way, that would be great.

*does Dalek voice* EXTERMINATE!

20 comments:

  1. I wanted to be Queen Victoria when I was 4. I wore a crown for 3 whole months. Oddly I haven't grown up to be a dead old Monarch. X

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    1. That's about as realistic as mine, nice work! Did you say you weren't amused a lot?

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  2. I wanted to be a fire fighter! No idea why but I'm nothing even remotely close to that now. I just want my daughter to have options. The end.

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    1. That's achievable at least! Options are good, I'd like everyone to have those.

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  3. I wanted to be David Attenborough, I thought it was a suit that unzipped and anyone could put on. I also thought he made the programmes on his own, no cameraman, sound recordist or director. Pre-mummy life I worked in TV and worked on a lot of Natural History so I met him on many occasions - the first time I did check for a zip though, just in case.

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    1. Ahahaha, fantastic! I quite want an Attenborough suit now.

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  4. I asked my Dad once when I was going to become a dog, as I loved them so. My son has asked me the same question, which I find really charming. Have a dog, didn't become a dog. Better for it. x

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    1. That's sweet, even though I'm not a dog person. Definitely better it didn't happen!

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  5. I did pretend to be a Dalek when I was about 6 but never thought I'd love to be one. I did however want to be an air hostess for a while and thought i could travel the world! Then I realised what they actually do and moved onto being a teacher, millionaire, nurse, doctor, physiotherapist, pharmacist, business woman. I now work in IT :)

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    1. I reckon Daleks would be good at IT, maybe you're closer than you think ;-)

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  6. What a great post, I unfortunately was one of those predictable footballer wannabee's, definately what my own Father wanted for me. Maybe if I had the right kind of support I could have become a sports coach which would truely suited me. Maybe you could have become a pilot instead of a plane (not sure where to fit the dalek bit in :p). I think sometimes those childhood ambitions can be nurtured in the right direction.

    Like you I want much more for my son and to help him reach the heights I havnt, his mum also excelled at Uni where I was very much a could do better kind of child but dont lack the basic intelligence.

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    1. I absolutely think those early dreams can be nurtured, I hope I'll manage to do so for Cam. Unless he wants to be a plane or a dalek, that's just silly.

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  7. I wanted to be a farmer, loved all the tractors and big machines. In fact if I could have a small holding now and live off that I would. Can't imagine me as a kid saying 'you know what? I'd love to be a management accountant when I'm older'

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    1. I actually do know a couple who have bought a smallholding in Devon and effectively live off the land.

      Incredibly brave step, they're essentially off grid and relying on hard graft and bartering to survive, but they're doing it.

      I sometimes wonder whether we'd all be better off if things had stayed a little simpler.

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  8. I wanted to be a professional dancer. Then an air hostess only to be told I wouldn't be tall enough. Then a solicitor only for my Uncle (a solicitor) to explain just how highly competitive it is.

    My brother wanted to be a fire engine.

    I want H to be happy and be able to support himself and his family should he have one.

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    1. Not tall enough to be an air hostess? Why does an air hostess need to be tall?

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  9. I wanted to be Ariel the mermaid. I wanted to be Indiana Jones. I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be a skate boarder and would stand on a small stack of books pretending to hang off the back of a car and drive past a gym ala Marty McFly. I wanted to be a Goonie....I am none of these things.
    *sigh*

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    1. I very briefly thought it would be cool to be Sebastian the crab, but only because he managed to rhyme hotter with water.

      You could still be a skateboarder, go on, do it.

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  10. I wanted to be 'Animal Girl', a superhero I created who could take on the talents of any animals, for example the speed of the cheetah on my run home from school, or night vision of an owl when it was scary in my room, or hearing of a bat when I wanted to hear what my parents were talking about! And I could talk to animals like my dogs.
    Then I wanted to be a Vet, then I was less ambitious and wanted to be a veterinary nurse. Then after a bad experience at the dentists I developed a needle phobia and realised working at the vets was no longer an option, I tested this by doing my work experience at the vets and whilst I could watch all open surgery, I couldn't watch drips, or the animals being put under.
    So then I wanted to follow my arty side and be a make-up artist, but not pretty make-up, a prosthetic makeup artist for sci-fi films, I think this was fuelled by my love for Buffy The Vampire Slayer : ) But I dropped A-Level Art as it was too time consuming and decided to pursue acting which I had always done... I got an audition with the Bristol Old Vic theatre school but fudged my modern piece so then took a job at Clerical Medical while I tried to decide what I wanted to do and then you know the rest.
    Ironically I have ended up right where I started, talking to dogs all day : )

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  11. Sound sense as always. My 9yo wants to be a hairdresser, fashion model, actress and football star all at once. 'Course I intend that she should be an investment banker so she can buy me a dower house, but I'm not going to quash her dreams by telling her that just yet.

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