As a young child, you’re always asked the question; ‘what do you want to be when you’re grown up?’ As children we’re seemingly far more certain of our path and what we want to do, and invariably would come out with a definite answer – ‘well a turtle obviously’. Often these answers were farfetched and unlikely to be achieved, but still they demonstrate the childhood attitude of dreaming big and that nothing is impossible. What would have happened if we hadn’t lost that childhood confidence and had actually followed our dreams, achieving those career paths? Would we be happier? Would be doing what we’re doing now or something very different? Should we have listened more to what we wanted to be as a 5 year old? This week Her Campus Aberdeen surveyed our lovely members and asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up, why, and whether or not they’re still keen on that career today. Those little 5 year olds who were asked that daunting question would probably regard us now as having ‘grown up’ but many of us still see ourselves as very much still having a long way to go before we’re fully fledged grown-ups…
So first up our HC Events Queen Jess, told us that she wanted to be a marine biologist as a young un’ but then went on to realise that she was actually pretty scared of water after a traumatic run in with a manta ray in Florida. Which y’know, is pretty vital if you want to survey the ocean! She then wanted to become a musical theatre star (without the talent – her words not mine!) and now fancies saving the world from terrorists. Our gal never thinks small huh?
Our Twitter guru Jen was also after an exciting life, wanting to become the next Bond girl and then later a little more in the action as Lara Croft. Now Jen is well on her way to becoming a corporate and investments lawyer – bit of a change of career path in the real world! Our money mogul Lauren also wanted a life fighting crime as a prison officer but now she’s taken a similar career path to Jen and is on her way to defending those criminals as a solicitor! So she’s never lost that drive for upholding the law, just changed the way she’s going to do the upholding.
Speaking of lawyers, three of our girls Lucy, Freya and Marie actually started off wanting to be lawyers – pretty stellar career to want to go into as a 5 year old! Marie’s parents told her that as she was sneaky and good at lying (so complimentary) so she’d be good at this career – clearly lawyers are not well thought of haha! Marie’s aspirations then took a bit of a creative twist when she then decided she wanted to be a make-up artist but now Marie is on her way to becoming a teacher. Freya however didn’t stray too far from her legal roots and now wants to establish a career in social research. Finally Lucy, did want to become a lawyer, then didn’t, then did again and hopefully will get there eventually!
Natala and Rachel on the other hand had it sorted as kids with dreams of being a chef, a vet or a movie star, but Natala has now realised once she hit adulthood that she’s really not quite sure where she wants to head with her life. Luckily with some years ahead of her still at uni – she’s got plenty time to decide! Rachel also realised that perhaps becoming a top chef wasn’t quite her jam after still struggling to cook pasta after three years at uni!
Our princess President Rachel always aimed high and as a kid was determined on becoming the Queen or her Granny in the future. Unlike the others these dreams haven’t changed and our Rach is still set on wearing that crown one day – or being like her great g-ma which is just as glorious. Anna always wanted to be a Princess too – so maybe she can be Queen Rach’s royal relation? Tamarra is another who has stuck to her guns. As a kid she wanted to be either a drama teacher or a primary teacher and now she’s just a dramatic primary teacher (heheh). Archaeology lover Charlotte also luckily enough studied her childhood aspiration at uni – she clearly knows herself well.
Anna wasn’t sure at all where she wanted to be as a grown up and pondered many different careers from being an astrologist after a school trip to the observatory and then later on considered becoming a cowboy (or girl). Finally however, her love of writing prevailed and she’s now studying English and Creative Writing – perhaps she can pen a story about an astrologist and the Wild Wild West?
Barbora took a total u-turn since she decided as a kid she wanted to be a ballerina. After realising that in order to get good at ballet you have to actually, em, learn ballet, she is now studying psychology and management with the aim of getting into marketing or journalism. Eira is also keen to getting into publishing or journalism (pretty apt since she’s our editor). Her aspirations of joining the Spice Girls were completely dashed when the group split up in 2000- but what would her Spice name have been?! Finally, Natascha’s always had the writing bug since a child and is now even closer to achieving that goal after choosing English as her degree and spending her spare time writing for publications like HC and her local newspaper!
Erin had her heart set on becoming a hairdresser and unlike Barbora, took to practising and honing her craft on a bunch of fake styling heads! However, she was desperate to move away to uni so ended up jumping ship and studying law instead – lots of our girls seem to be heading down this road! Money was also a factor for some of our girls after actually researching into their dream careers. At some point being sensible had to come into it and some careers just wouldn’t pay the bills. Lisa’s dream career was being a horse-riding instructor but in the search for a better paid job she’s now studying economics but is still not sure what door will open for her!
Animal lover Anette was set on becoming a vet, but realised she was scared of any animals bigger than cats and dogs so she made a complete u-turn and now wants to join Jen in becoming a corporate lawyer.
Finally myself and Rosalyn, both had aspirations of becoming authors. I’d always loved creative writing and won a few prizes when I was younger (not to toot my own horn!) and I also wanted to illustrate my own books. I can’t actually remember why this never turned out to be my future career (I’m now 9 months away from being a trainee solicitor) but I still keep up creative writing in my own time. Rosalyn wanted to build a tunnel with her friend where they would write books together but she’s now 1 year away from being a doctor after Grey’s Anatomy took her fancy. Clearly we both took the more stable career option but are forever wishing we could have stayed in our little creative bubbles and not confronted the real world forever.
Our group here at Her Campus Aberdeen are a diverse bunch and all had (and have) huge aspirations. From movie stars, to doctors, to cowboys and researchers it just shows you that no matter whether you follow your dreams or decide to head down another path, you can still be successful. It also shows you that you don’t have to know exactly what you want to do, this is always changing. Who says you aren’t going to change your mind another 20 years down the line? Just do your best at what you do and try and keep your kidlike dreams and aspirations alive as an adult, because you never know when you might want a career change. Right now I’m on my way to being a private client solicitor but when I grow up (or old) I’d love to own my own little cosy cafe with tons of books and fairy lights… you’re never too old for a dream.