You know how kids want to be a pilot or an astronaut or a businessperson etc, was there something you really wanted to be when you were very young? Did you become it or are you still working towards it?
I can remember wanting to be an Archeologist. I don’t know why I wanted to be that, I don’t think it had to do with the Indy or Jurassic movies as I hadn’t seen them yet. I was just intrigued by the notion of finding historical objects and learning about the past.
I did not become an Archeologist or anything close to it but I actually feel I wouldn’t enjoy it now that I’m older. I do still enjoy seeing interesting things about history, but wouldn’t want to be out in the dirt digging it up
I wanted to be a game developer. Studied Programming in that persuit. Didn’t get a dev job after a good few months of looking, took a technical job as an interim. Never had an opportunity to move into dev at the companies I worked at(one company had multiple dev depts but they never gave me that shot, suppose I was too good at my technical job)
The company I work for now I’m sure I would easily get a dev opportunity but I have moved on I think. Too late to restart my career, and would probably have more stress if I look at our devs
That being said, I write plenty of Powershell scripts and that makes me feel like a full fledged programmer(no disrespect to the actual devs here )
Upside is I at least finally enjoy my job(on most days)
That sounds cool. You could always go Indie one day if you have time as a hobby, that way you don’t restart your career, just a side branch Excel VBA makes me feel like a hacker! haha
Ya, as a kid I thought, “space is cool! Floating in 0g is cool!”
As an adult, I just want off this rock.
@Wyvern I also wanted to be a vet, but I gave up on that really early on when I walked in to a cat show and found out I’ve got allergies to a lot of animals
Its still something I wish I could do, I even considered doing something with regards to dog training, since I am relatively good at it. But the money is just not there.
Ahh, I too have a liking of the backlit black veil in the sky with holes punched in it
There are so many resources to learn about all of that these days which is great. Do you have or have you ever had an actual telescope? I’d maybe like to get one one day, I just don’t know where I would store it. I’ve done the astrophotography thing which is great as well.
When I was quite young I remember finding an old hunting spotting scope and pointed it at the moon and locked it in place to enjoy the view, but then I remember getting annoyed at the fact that the scope kept ‘sagging’ down and the moon going out of view. I remember tightening it in place so tight but it never stayed in place. Took a good couple of hours to realise that it was because the moon and Earth were moving the whole time. Duh!
I wanted to become a chemical engineer and discover the next big designer drug. Jokes aside I did actually want to become a chemical engineer, but in high school I started not giving a F about maths (partly because of a teacher I disliked) and science (partly because my mom was my science teacher - not a great dynamic).
When it came time to go study something I did aptitude tests and they said languages so I got a degree in Language Practice instead. Don’t really use it but I did just finish a freelance translation project for my old high school which enabled me to achieve my lifelong goal of owning a drum kit so I guess it was worth it in the end.
Sadly I never had a telescope and when I was young, there was no google or internet, books was all I had. I went every week to the library in DBN central and got more books. I also lived and breathed sci fi too, Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, all the classic writers.
I was very small in my pre-teens, loved horses, and had dreams of becoming a champion jockey. So much so that sending me down to Natal to attend Jockey Academy was being seriously considered. We lived a short bike ride away from the Newmarket Race Course and the stables there at the time, and I spent a lot of time there on weekends.
Then I started high school, hit puberty and had a ridiculously fast growth spurt. I grew almost 18 inches (almost 0.45m) and gained 10 kilograms in the year. Weird bone doctor dude told the folks that I would continue to grow a fair bit more the next few years. And he was right. By matric I was playing 2nd Team lock and had all but forgotten my jockey career aspirations.
I did still spend a fair bit of time around the horses and race courses working in the TAB taking silly money from punters. Sadly, I haven’t been on a horse in over thirty years since those days.
Neigh.
And as I continue to grow towards my second childhood, I’d still like to be a published author, a racecar driver, an astronaut, own my own luxury hotel, and a billionaire. (In any order, but the last one not in Zimbabwe).
I’ve always wanted to be a pilot. Since I was very little I developed a fascination of airplanes, especially fighter planes. Microsoft Flight Simulator 95 was one of the first games I ever received on CD-ROM and although I had no idea what I was doing, I loved playing the game. One of the earliest PC games I played was TFX, the game that would later become MSFS. I even enquired about the prerequisites for becoming a pilot. I had all the soft skills, math skills, all the right subjects and marks in everything. But, both SAA and SANDF had 3 physical criteria that pilots at that time had to abide by, not taller than 1.9m, not weigh more than 100kg, have perfect 20/20 vision. As a glasses wearing semi-blind, 1.96m 123kg shot putter in highschool, there was no way I would be getting into that. Nowadays they don’t care about the eye sight nor the weight, but height is still an issue.
At least I get to live out me dream in gaming form through MSFS.
I wanted to be an architect. Won the KZN prize for technical drawing in Matric. But, hit a hurdle with study chances. Ended up doing IT, my second love, for ages. Managed to change careers to the family construction company in 2012. Now I get to deal with architects and they are dumbasses.
I also thought that maybe I could develop games but was always told my math is too bad for programming. Not sure what that means, so I guess it must be true
Hey me too! My nickname from technical drawing was human printer because my lines looked like they were printed.
Then when they interviewed me to get into WITS I inadvertently insulted the lecturers friend. They found out where I live and then asked what I thought of a certain building. I said it was a terrible design and he gave me this sad look and said that his friend designed it.
@GregRedd
I find all of that very interesting. I don’t know anyone who has been involved in any sort of horse racing. Isn’t it only for the British Royal Family? I know some people who like to go to the races and ‘put a buck on a pony’ on a Friday afternoon but nothing from the other side of the sport.
I find some of the horse names funny. I even joked and said we should sponsor a horse and call it ‘Your Mother’ for the commentators to have a field day, but apparently they do vett the names a little bit at least to prevent things like that.
That would be cool.
All the MEW leagues you are part of should be helping with that itch
I think you would have been good at it. From what I know about you you’re very analytical and strategic in any endeavor you plan or commit to and logical and systematic in your execution. Flying a plane has all the books of procedures you would be perfect at.
It’s interesting about the requirements needed. Suppose all the cockpits are quite cramped. Wouldn’t want your knee knocking the yoke when you turn around to get coffee
I know you mentioned SANDF and SAA, what type of flying would you have preferred? Cargo and ‘work’ flying or commercial flights taking people around? You have the voice for speaking over the intercom to tell all the passengers just how cold it is outside on the wing
@oltman
Well it’s kind of in the same ballpark what you’re doing now isn’t it at least? I don’t even know what you would need to study to be an architect. Are there actually courses ‘Architecture 101’ or it’s probably like Technical Drawing or something.
I did some architectural photography for some firms here around us and I found that some architects think they are rockstars and have huge egos just because they designed a wing on an already good looking building, where the others design huge masterpieces but you can sit and chill with them no issues.
Nonsense. You can do it.
Ouch. But sometimes the truth hurts. Do you have a photo or streetview of the place that we can scrutinise it also?
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