What do you want to do or be when you grow up?

I've never had an ambition, or a goal/s in life, at 63 I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. I don't know if it's because I was never encouraged to do anything when I was a child, although I was often discouraged. If like most little girls I said I wantd to be a nurse, I was told that I wouldn't really want to that as it would involve carrying used bed pans around. A wish to be a hairdresser was met with disgust.

We had no careers advice at school, or at least not until we'd made our exam choices and it was to late to change anything. Some of the teachers said there was no point in educating us as we'd only go off and get married and have babies.

After leaving school, I was asked what I wanted to do and could never answer, I simply didn't know, I remember being told to search through a filing cabinet of folders about possible careers and found nothing, I was just overwhelmed. I think it also didn't help that a "career" was a fairly new thing, for people of my class, we's always had "jobs", which was a very different thing.

How did you find the thing you wanted to do, or do you still not know?

Do you do the job you trained for? 

Parents
  • At 57 I still don't know. I feel like I am still waiting to start.

    I've done a series of jobs, some well paid, but I have been good at whatever I have done so there is no standout thing to pursue.

    I don't plan to retire unless something changes. So I have 20 years. That's long enough to create a career and earn some (more) money. I'm wondering whether to do a degree or master's or something. Or whether to find a way into something new.

    I'm bored and need an intellectual challenge. I am just nervous about my crappy sleep, although I'm a hungry sponge when I have something I'm interested in.

    At school I wanted drive trucks or join the Navy. I was told to go to uni as I could do better. I dropped out of mechanical engineering. I never wanted to work in an office, so I spent 35 years in an office.

Reply
  • At 57 I still don't know. I feel like I am still waiting to start.

    I've done a series of jobs, some well paid, but I have been good at whatever I have done so there is no standout thing to pursue.

    I don't plan to retire unless something changes. So I have 20 years. That's long enough to create a career and earn some (more) money. I'm wondering whether to do a degree or master's or something. Or whether to find a way into something new.

    I'm bored and need an intellectual challenge. I am just nervous about my crappy sleep, although I'm a hungry sponge when I have something I'm interested in.

    At school I wanted drive trucks or join the Navy. I was told to go to uni as I could do better. I dropped out of mechanical engineering. I never wanted to work in an office, so I spent 35 years in an office.

Children
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