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Thread: Are you living the life you wanted when you were a child?

  1. #11
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    I wanted to write for soap operas). I also wanted to get married and have kids which I did and go to college.

  2. #12
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    When I was a kid, I knew I wanted to be an engineer (or something like it). Even when I fell into the computer field as a career, I could not have envisioned my last Corporate America job, orchestrating virtual computer users to test software programs and Web sites. That work just didn't exist until a few years before I was doing it. I've seen people survive and even prosper after having major joint issues and people live full, actualized lives even with chronic conditions like diabetes. I've seen so much more of the world than anyone who's lived in my family before me.

    Did I figure on a divorce? Or moving to Minnesota? Or some of the other issues which have come up in my life? No. Would I change much of anything? Not sure it's a question worth asking -- the bad stuff opened up as many doors as the good stuff.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  3. #13
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    Maybe I wanted at times to be a teacher, a journalist, a musician. But journalism hardly exists as a profession at this point, and very few people could ever make it as a musician at any time. I always wanted a career, but have never found an ideal one. Financially sure my parents had it better, for lots of reasons, including the times they lived in. I envisioned that, but then I may as well be a millennial saying "ok boomer", for all the use the uselessness of comparing to a different world. Few elders are forcing that comparison on me at this point, why should I care about it, it's so irrelevant.

    My dad traveled far more, but I live in an age of collapse and do know it, and so ... with Greta, now where is my sailboat ...

    So tech wasn't part of my plans, but it's tangential. Jobs were not necessarily better without tech. I do however think like I said that it's a net negative, even though of course I've sometimes found good in it, and sure there is lots of information, sure I like finding that information, but overall time spent on tech (well at least to the extent it's not earning money haha) is a net negative and I do suspect it's making our society worse too.
    Trees don't grow on money

  4. #14
    Yppej
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    No. I wanted to be a writer for a living but I only write Yelp reviews in my spare time. I did recently get my first follower though, plus 115 votes.

  5. #15
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    Pcooley - it’s fun to read your post.

    We are very similar. My favorite things as a kid were to take a bike ride, walk alone through the corn fields and woods, and sit alone and read. But I didn’t really know what I wanted until my late 30s because my life was consumed with pleasing others. I think women struggle with that. I was a good daughter, a good wife, then a good mom. Then In my late 30s I finally gave some thought to what I wanted, not just to what others wanted from me.

    But looking back I see hints of who I am today in the thoughts and feelings I remember having, buried under social obligations. If I had it to do over, I would have taken art classes instead of music classes in high school. I would have joined the nature club instead of the church youth group. I did things to please my parents. But I didn’t really know what I wanted until later in life. So it’s really no one’s fault.

  6. #16
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    Yes, for the most part, I’ve lived the life I envisioned for myself. I was an elementary teacher for 31 years, had one daughter (would have liked to have had more kids), traveled in the US but didn’t get to go abroad. I’ve been able to enjoy nature nearly every day.

    I have been a voracious reader since I was 5 yrs old. Often now, that reading is online. I have embraced information technology, but not a lot of social media, as I am on here and Face Book only. I have never routinely watched television. But I clearly remember the day my boss wanted me to type the same letter 37 times, each addressed to a different person. I told him, “uh, no. We have computers that do that now.” Fortunately I was working at the university, and was allowed/encouraged to go to the Information Technology Department and use the machines.

    I love that we can look up things immediately on our “phones”- such a handy teaching tool. Every tutoring session, we end up looking up at least one thing, often many. I can look up new quilt patterns, and see demonstrations of them. I can turn to U tube for how to fix just about any thing. I can watch a demonstration of pruning roses, and learn when I should do it. I can shop on line, not always buy on line, but definitely shop, to see the breadth of the choices- totally beats driving all over town! So, yes, I have embraced technology, just not the social media aspect, but then, I am an introvert.

    I am happy to be a woman of my generation- yes, a boomer- and not of the ones before. I like that we are experiencing the freedoms that the women before us lacked. And I feel a responsibility to preserve those rights.

  7. #17
    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveinMN View Post
    Would I change much of anything? Not sure it's a question worth asking -- the bad stuff opened up as many doors as the good stuff.
    This statement rings so true to me. I've always just followed whatever path seemed to make the most sense at any given point of my life and let the twists and turns play out however they would. If I hadn't hated the first Lord of the Rings movie I wouldn't likely be a successful cyber insurance underwriter today. (If I'd liked that movie I would've gone with my friends to see the second one instead of inviting the cute redhead I'd just met to come home with me. And if I hadn't brought him home that night then 7 years later when he had a great job opportunity I wouldn't have moved with him from NYC to San Francisco. Once here I lucked into my current career because I was in the right place at the right time.)

    But back to the OP's question. I never really had some big vision of what my adult life would be like. I guess I lacked the imagination to picture some grand scheme like several here have described. But overall I'm happy with how things have turned out. Occasionally I have to take a step back and say "wow, do I really want to be spending this much time on facebook..." or things like that, but yeah, mostly I'm content.

  8. #18
    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LDAHL View Post
    I suppose like most children, I dreamed of one day becoming a Certified Public Accountant.
    I'm reminded of one of the first days of my college experience. I showed up for accounting 101 or whatever it was called and the professor made us each introduce ourselves and explain why we were there. One of my classmates said "Hi, I'm ---. I'm here because this is the first step towards my goal or working at a big 6 accounting firm." I was fascinated at the idea that an 18 year old would dream of working at a big 6 accounting firm, but apparently she did. Looking back I just hope for her sake that she didn't wind up at Arthur Andersen.

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by jp1 View Post
    I'm reminded of one of the first days of my college experience. I showed up for accounting 101 or whatever it was called and the professor made us each introduce ourselves and explain why we were there. One of my classmates said "Hi, I'm ---. I'm here because this is the first step towards my goal or working at a big 6 accounting firm." I was fascinated at the idea that an 18 year old would dream of working at a big 6 accounting firm, but apparently she did. Looking back I just hope for her sake that she didn't wind up at Arthur Andersen.
    Over the course of my career, I saw the Big Eight become the Final Four.

  10. #20
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    My teen years were all the Beatles and John Denver - Rocky Mountain High. I wanted to be a forest ranger. I am not a forest ranger, so in that sense, I am not "living my childhood dream". But that's okay. I've done more and been more places than I ever dreamed as a child. I wanted children and I have children, which is one of my bigger dreams fulfilled.

    As for technology, I programmed in the past and do data management now. I enjoy it. Technological gadgets - I pick and choose what I use and how I use them.

    I liked SteveinMN's "Would I change much of anything? Not sure it's a question worth asking -- the bad stuff opened up as many doors as the good stuff." Some of the bad stuff has been pretty bad, but I am where I am today because of the good AND the bad. Right now, life isn't too bad, and I know things will always change.
    To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
    Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
    In a world where you can be anything - be kind. Unknown

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