My favorite ice breaker. What do/did you want to be as an adult?

  • KssioAug@piefed.zipEnglish
    2·
    3 hours ago

    I wanted to be a professional illustrator. Nowadays I barely illustrate as a hobby. Although I still enjoy it I don’t really have the skills for it.

    I’m a lawyer and a programmer though. For many years I hated being a lawyer, but I would say that I’ve finally reached a point in my life and career where I’m happy with it.

    • ProjectAzar@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 hours ago

      I’m in a somewhat similar boat. I wanted to design video games. Create worlds, write characters, work on mechanics. I went to school for computer science and took a bunch of classes to learn skills necessary to make games. Then I made two games. Turns out I hate it.

      Now I’m a lawyer and I sue drug companies for a living. I still spend time building my little worlds, but I don’t think I’ll ever make them into anything more than TTRPG campaigns.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    4 hours ago

    I wanted to be a pilot.

    I got my licenses and worked as a flight instructor for awhile. Haven’t flown in years, probably never going to again.

  • myszka@lemmy.ml
    3·
    8 hours ago

    I’ve always wanted to be a free creative person, inventing or just making things in different fields and I am such a person now, though not as free as I’d like to be…

  • Signtist@bookwyr.meEnglish
    3·
    9 hours ago

    An inventor. I was so sure I could make flying cars just by strapping a few downward-pointing jet engines to a regular car. The only thing I ever actually invented was a pen (by breaking and taping together parts from multiple other pens).

  • ImpulseDrive42@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    12 hours ago

    An astronaut, until I discovered I hated rollercoasters.

    And then an aerospace engineer, until I failed pre-calculus twice.

    And then I had a random computer programming course in high school, and ECPI visited our high school. So I settled on computer programming.

    I’ve been in the field of computer programming for about 20 years now. I like coding and it pays good too.

  • SpongyAneurysm@feddit.org
    3·
    12 hours ago

    I never had that kind of goal focus as a kid.

    I’m now in my late 30s, am unemployed with an engineering degree and still have no clue what to do as a job…

      • SpongyAneurysm@feddit.org
        1·
        8 hours ago

        I go to the supermarket and buy stuff.

        I’m not saying, I’ve never had a job, so I’ve got some savings on the side. I also live in a country with a somewhat functioning social security system. Although it took all of my energy to navigate it at times, that secured a bit of income for some time.

        Lately, I depend on my spouse though.

  • Noklito@lemmy.zip
    3·
    14 hours ago

    As a kid, I hated that question, I didn’t dream of working as a kid, early misfortune in life taught me some interesting lessons.

    I think I grew up with a vague idea of wanting to be free of money, as I associated with misery growing up and as a result, never had an answer to the question outside of “I just want to help people”.

  • daggermoon@piefed.worldEnglish
    2·
    14 hours ago

    When I was a young lad I wanted to be an astronomer or computer scientist or something. As an adult, I just want to be happy.

    • SpongyAneurysm@feddit.org
      4·
      12 hours ago

      That sounds hella cool. But I’ve seen too many Ridley Scott movies, which makes me hesitant to root for you to achieve that dream.

  • zener_diode@feddit.org
    4·
    17 hours ago

    Used to be “oh, I want to do something with computers and programming”.

    By now that’s solidified into either some sort of sysadmin, or something in the field of designing microprocessors.

    I’m also considering instead training to become an ATC after I’m done with my CS degree.