Neat thread, Trish. What did I want to be? I'll go chronologically:

I vaguely remember wanting to be a school bus driver because I loved my kindergarten bus driver, Al.

Julia made me want to be a chef, Harriet made me want to be a spy, Peggy made me want to be an Olympic figure skater, Laura made me want to be a "lady pioneer", and I sort of remember wanting to be a Hillbilly, a Brady, or a Partridge. Exit elementary school.

By junior high my interests took on an unbridled passion for being the next Karen Carpenter, a commercial baker, or sadly, a baby sitter. I had discovered that I wanted jobs that fit me, not that I could fit into.

With a bit more exposure to the world via the sophisticated society of high school, I finally embraced my secret love of the English language and devoted myself to it completely —when I wasn't doing other, more entertaining stuff.

I knew that my career would somehow involve writing and that it did. My appreciation for order and precision led me toward the technical writing field which I mingled with the marketing mix to land myself in marketing research. Then, there was that whole new layer of idiot savant analytical skills, no one warned me that I'd like it!

When I was little, I wanted to be a ballerina. All pink with a pink tutu.

I'm not sure if I always wanted to be a nurse because my older sister wanted to be one or if it was all on my own. I idolized her, followed her every footsteps. So we dreamed of being nurses. Dad gave free reign of the garage and helped us make a man sized hinged wooden man that we would bandage, splint, pick berries and give as pills. We had a great time with Herman!

We are 18 months apart so she went off to college first. You have to understand here that my Dad was a strict Southern Baptist preacher so going off to college is quite a revealing experience! So she found out that she was terrible at nursing and swiched her minor to education. Her major continued to be men!

So I just happened to come across a hospital based nursing school one day at a careeer fair. It's a diploma program. You actually start in the hospital working with patients at about the second week where my sister at the end of her 1st year still wasn't in the hospital. Anyway I loved it, got so so grades but thrived after graduation. I was an RN for 27 years until MS said it was finally time to quit. With health care like it is today I don't know if I could reccomend nursing to anyone now.

I would still be working there now if not for my MS but God had differeint plans for me. I am now chief cook and bottle washer at home and medical referal for all my family. My Mom, MIL and sister have many heath problems that I would problby have a nervous breakdown if I were trying to work and handle all the other problems.

Maybe some kind of home economics course could get her into nutrition?

What a fun thread, Tricia!

Back in the bad old days, I remember thinking my only choices were either a nurse or a teacher. (That's what all the girls in 5th grade wanted to be!) I knew I didn't want to be a nurse, so I figured I might become a teacher.

But I was lousy at college. I didn't have any self-discipline and wasted my parents' money.

I could type, so I spent my first few years as a clerk typist, put my DH thru electrical school, then started having babies. Didn't go back to work for 18 years! But I taught piano lessons in my home during that time.

So I guess I got to be a teacher after all! But I gave it up when I re-entered the work force 17 years ago (wow! how can THAT be? )

If I had it to do over, I'd go into advertising. But nobody told me that was an option waaaay back when I was a sweet young thang.

I wanted to be a lot of things.

I wanted to be a firefighter (because my favorite show when I was five years old was Emergency!) I've never outgrown my love for fire engines...or firefighters I was discouraged from doing so because I'm a girl, and apparently that was something that girls couldnt do yet when I hit my teens.

Wanted to be a teacher. Now, I think I'd have to commit myself if I had become a teacher. No. way. in. hell. would. I. do. that. now.

wanted to be an astronaut...still kind of do, but I'm pretty sure I'd flunk the training in the Vomit Comet.

Wanted to drive an 18 wheeler. (another tv related career...used to love the tv show BJ and the Bear)

One job that I actually started the training for was sign language interpreter. I dropped out of the classes when I got mononucleosis in 1996 and didnt go back. (took a year for me to recover from the mono, and then started getting the weird vertigo problems soon after that)

Other job that I started the training for and have been trying to get back to ever since the MS crap started up was medical transcription. Everytime I make plans to start finishing the classes, I get a really annoying exacerbation. (so far, two vision problems, a leg that was so numb that I was afraid to leave the house because of it) and now I'm just scared to make plans again.

Aside from doing the medical transcription if I can ever get back to finish the training for that, I would LOVE to be a librarian. I love books. (yes, I have two Kindles, but I still love books...love going to the library still)

I am so surprised to read about so many women who wanted to be truck drivers!

I worked for years in the transportation industry (not driving......just sitting behind a desk) but I was always a little scared of those big rigs. I'd see the guys trying to back into a dock space and wonder how on earth anyone could control one of those monster trucks.

We had lots of husband/wife teams, though. And every once in a while a woman driver would show up.

Tricia......you couldn't find a "Big Rig Barbie"?

Ever since I can remember I have wanted to be a Nurse. I have no idea why, it is something I have always wanted.

I was fortunate to attend a hospital based diploma program which gave me an unmatched foundation of nursing principles & practice.
My school resembled being in a convent. We had a 10pm curfew our first year, 11pm the second and midnight our third. The class before me actually had 'mandatory study' every evening for one hour.

There were 3 classes of 25 girls each and we lived in the "Nurses Home" , had our classes there and were actually on the hospital grounds. In the class after mine they finally admitted "men" and I did meet my DH there!! We had to keep our dating a secret or we both would have been expelled!!

I have never regretted my choice of nursing. I was able to take years off to follow DH around in the Air force and raise 3 beautiful children. I really miss it now that I can't work anymore!

Risby my Diploma program was also on hospital grounds. The class before mine got some rules changed. Very early curfew, only go home on weekends if your grades were high enough. Could not be married. Our classes were held in the basement of our 'dorm'. We had a new and old part. In the old part there were two community johns to about 8 students apiece. I was lucky to never have to live over there. Oh, you couldn't live off campus if you were a freshman. But it was wonderful to have the kind of program we had. I don't know if there are even any diplaoma programs left.

Dodyie
Our classes were in the basement also!! We were lucky as we all had our own room with communal bathrooms. Our dorm closed on weekends,the state didn't want to pay a 'Housemother" so we had to go home. Like you, no one could be married! At times I wondered if I was in nursing school or a convent??

I doubt there are any diploma programs left these days. It was tough 36 months straight thru with only 2 weeks off each year....boy the hospital was horribly hot during July & August....but looking back I appreciate all the actual nursing theory and skills I was taught. Served me very well while actually working.