Ducati Monster Forum

Remember when you were a kid and dreamed of being an astronaut or a race car driver? Maybe a firefighter or a movie star? Have you fulfilled that dream? Do you even care to anymore?

I remember when I was a kid (I still am by many standards but I'm talking 5y/o kid) I went on a tour of Sierra games. Remember them? They made the King's Quest Series, So You Want to be a Hero and other RPGs. At the end of the tour I proclaimed aloud, "I'm going to be a game tester when I grow up!" And yet, here I am, a bum.

I have been educated as a structural engineer and worked the field for 5 months before getting fed up with my boss and burning out. My unfinished master's project made a great excuse to quit work and yet, 6 months later, I've made little progress toward that goal and am going back to live at home with my parents. I feel like a complete failure but at the same time I'm remembering my childhood dreams and am feeling a bit of hope. At the end of my college career I started to explore some of them a bit. I started teaching myself how to do 3D modeling with Milkshape 3D in hopes of seeing what it's like to be in video game development. I also started trying to make my own recipes for a restaurant that I've always wanted to start since I was a kid. Now that I'm getting my energy up and am ready to pick myself up again these dreams keep floating around my mind and I am tempted more than ever to pursue them again. But first I must finish my master's project and stop being a disappointment to my family.

I am curious though. How many of you have fulfilled your childhood dreams? Are you doing what you always wanted to do? Do you even have any inclination to do what you dreamed of doing or was it just some far fetched childhood fantasy? I'm talking childhood dreams here.

I always dreamed of staying out of jail

so far so good

I guess I'm content...

my P/T job is pretty cool, but when I was a kid, I never thought I'd be getting paid to drink and sell wine

I always wanted to be rich.


I'm on my way.

I wanted to be a doctor.  I was working on it, and was very driven when my boyfriend went through a prolonged hospitalization and died.  I was already a respiratory therapist by then and was working full-time and going to school full-time (did that while getting the respiratory degree also).  When he died, it just hit me - I don't want to spend my whole life working my ass of and never really living.  Shortly after, I started the travel gig and aside from staying put long enough to knock out a nursing degree, I've been playing for 10 years now.  I've lived all over the country and have seen quite a bit of the world.  I've taken great motorcycle trips, as well as lots of hiking and camping and all that.

Now I'm getting burned out with healthcare.  I think I'd still be enjoying it if it was still about saving people, but now it's about paperwork, CYA, and ass-kissing.  I'm done.  I've just signed a one year lease, which is the biggest committment I've made in 10 years (still nervous about that one) and am trying to figure out what my next career will be.  I am quite creative and think design of some type would be ideal, but I also love to travel and wish I could figure out a way to incorporate that.  I dunno - I've given myself a year to figure it out and I'll probably be headed back to school within the next year or so.

CRNA would make more sense.  I'd make bank and could still be a traveler, but right now I'm just so burned out on healthcare that I'm thinking of bartending, waiting tables, or spanking people for money.   [laugh]

i've been the creative type since mrs. sutherland, my kindergarten teacher, told my mother i COULD NOT color the cow purple.

today, i'm a graphic designer, and could not imagine doing anything else for a living :)

need more options in these hard economic times i think

I wanted to be a doctor.

I was smart enough, but really didn't like applying myself.

So I got a Finance Degree and do Corporate Treasury.

getting bored with it or maybe the division I work for.

I work with motorcycles, so yeah doing ok [thumbsup]

I fix cool cars.  Eh, its okay.

I hang out here...

and make dust. ;D

and the last 3 posters are all poor and work long hours ;D

Doh!! [bang]  nah you got me figured wrong Bear.  I work 7:30 to 5:30 weekdays only. The poor part, well I wish I made more but in reality I'm one of the highest paid auto technicians in town.

^^^ I thought working on cool cars was what I wanted to do but really got sick of flat rate pay quick and went back to school.

Now I work in Accounting making more money for waaaaaaaay less work.  Not exactly a glorious job but I look at it as a means to an end.  Accounting is not the most exciting job but without it there would be no Monster and lots of other things in my life.   [thumbsup]

Yes and no. I wanted to be a doctor, but I'm in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman. I'm currently in school to be an Independent Duty Corpsman on a Submarine...

My dream job is playing violin in a professional orchestra, but it is extremely difficult to make a living doing that in the US.  My more realistic dream was to be a scientist, which I am.  I'm also playing violin in a non-professional orchestra for fun so it's all good. [thumbsup]

Ever since I can remember I've been taking shit apart and then putting it together again. I love machines, and  I used to be a screwdriver-wielding tornado. It got to the point that my family members used to have to hide electronics from me  [laugh] [laugh] [laugh] I started designing and building stuff ever since I was 5.

Then, I fell in love with numbers. I was the odd kid that actually enjoyed math. My father taught me how to do calculus when I was 14.  :)

When I realized that everything I likes pointed towards engineering, that-s what I set out to be. Right up until the  moment that I realized that all engineers do is sit behind a desk and place orders. I refuse to be a desk engineer. That's when I realized that I would never be happy making other people's dreams a reality.

Right now, I'm 21. By all standards, I'm still a kid. But I am pretty happy with where I am in life. I started my own small company, I'm well on my way to my Mechanical Engineering degree and I'm starting a double major with Aerospace Engineering next semester; and I have two years to make my company flourish before I hit the real world. Hopefully, I'll be doing well enough that I don't have to take a job. Maybe I'll be burned out and hate it by then. But right now, I'm pretty damn pleased.

Quote from: El Matador on May 19, 2009, 06:55:53 AM
Ever since I can remember I've been taking shit apart and then putting it together again. I love machines, and  I used to be a screwdriver-wielding tornado. It got to the point that my family members used to have to hide electronics from me  [laugh] [laugh] [laugh] I started designing and building stuff ever since I was 5.

Then, I fell in love with numbers. I was the odd kid that actually enjoyed math. My father taught me how to do calculus when I was 14.  :)

When I realized that everything I likes pointed towards engineering, that-s what I set out to be. Right up until the  moment that I realized that all engineers do is sit behind a desk and place orders. I refuse to be a desk engineer. That's when I realized that I would never be happy making other people's dreams a reality.

Right now, I'm 21. By all standards, I'm still a kid. But I am pretty happy with where I am in life. I started my own small company, I'm well on my way to my Mechanical Engineering degree and I'm starting a double major with Aerospace Engineering next semester; and I have two years to make my company flourish before I hit the real world. Hopefully, I'll be doing well enough that I don't have to take a job. Maybe I'll be burned out and hate it by then. But right now, I'm pretty damn pleased.

Sounds like you got your shit straight.  [thumbsup]

I dreamed of being a super hero... and my special skill was throwing sticks with lethal accuracy.

I've since altered the dream a lil....sticks have been replaced with a rusty spoon, and it's more gouging that throwing theses days.

Quote from: Ducaholic on May 19, 2009, 06:30:18 AM
Doh!! [bang]  nah you got me figured wrong Bear.  I work 7:30 to 5:30 weekdays only. The poor part, well I wish I made more but in reality I'm one of the highest paid auto technicians in town.

Porche Tech at dealership if I remember correctly ?

Quote from: Big Troubled Bear on May 19, 2009, 07:23:57 AM
Porche Tech at dealership if I remember correctly ?

Yup. So far the wonderful economy on this side of the planet has not really affected us. Yet.

i wanted to be a pilot in the air force. then i realized that i have a major problem with authority and wouldn't survive basic.

i decided that since i like science and flying i should go for aerospace...found out that was basically a double with Mech engineering so i tried that. i realized that i suck at math, but that has never stopped me from doing things before so i plowed through until i ran out of money and left college.

now i sit at a desk and get yelled at for doign things wrong, doing things right, or not doing anything.

i have no idea what i want to be when i grow up now. the thing that brought me the most joy was being a bike messenger. it also paid the least.
i think i want to be a lottery winner or find outi have a rich relative that wants to give me money. (or find a rich old woman who wants me to be her poolboy and will leave me her money when she kicks)

I've always wanted to be a military pilot (preferably Navy due to the F-18 and carrier landings, but any service/plane would have worked). I grew up around airplanes, as my dad was a firefighter at Nellis AFB, so we were always out there. I tried at the end of High School, but I have asthma, and it was fairly bad at the time...so the military said no thanks. Bummer.

Professional drummer would be my 2nd choice (ya...drummer and fighter pilot...odd combo [cheeky]). During college, and for about 5 years after, I played drums in a few local bands...a couple of which were pretty popular...too bad it was in Reno. I tried to convince the guys in the last one to pack up and give it a go in SF for a couple years...they all thought it would be fun, but wussed out. I wasn't balsy enough to do it on my own.  :-\

So, I got a couple engineering degrees (BS & MS), and am doing well at that. Someday I'll do something else, but it's hard to leave a job that you don't hate or love, but pays well. Engineering is actually fun in school, and is fun 10% of the time in the real world. What they don't tell you in school is that engineers (at least civil) spend a large amount of time writing memos. So it goes.

If I did it over I think I would have gotten a music degree in college, and practiced my ass off all the time. If I didn't make it big, I could have been a studio drummer...which would probably be pretty fun and pays decent.

I wanted to be on the women's national team for soccer. I almost made it.

I was also an uber geek who grew up in a house that started getting the earliest consumer computers available. We still have one of these working:

(http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/photos/apple_mac128.jpg)

So I went through school and became a professional geek. Its an ok job, I like learning about the new technology coming down the pipeline, but I don't like being stuck sitting all day long.

I design defense systems for the military (mostly missiles). It's pays the bills, but my childhood dream of being in the FBI seems like it would be more fun. 

when i grow up....... no i wont be doing that, im really happy where im at could be better could be a lot worst.

Quote from: turtherlips on May 19, 2009, 08:59:13 AM
I design defense systems for the military (mostly missiles). It's pays the bills, but my childhood dream of being in the FBI seems like it would be more fun. 

hahaha, you build things that take down in seconds what takesd triple j a while to plan and draw up.

(this just proves that civil engineers build targets  ;D)

My outlook morphed from architechture to pipe drafting to mechanical drafting and ended up as a mechanical engineer.  I guess I set the bar too low when I was younger.  Glorified electronics and sensors packaging, but but when your operating environment is 20,000 ft below the surface, 350F - 500F and 20kpsi - 30kpsi it isn't that boring.  NASA doesn't have anything on the wireline logging and MWD/LWD segment of the oil patch.

I wanted to be a doc, and now I do Retina Surgery, so I'm pretty happy with what I do. I'm 34 now, and I would like to maybe do something else when I turn 50 or 55.
Nitewaif, health care ain't all bad. I'm one of a lucky few who actually enjoy their job. Yeah, there is some cya and some paperwork, and your reimbursement gets cut every year by a bunch of wankers who wouldn't know the 1st thing about what you do, and the public continually derides you for being "greedy."  :P  But I spend most of my time seeing patients, most of whom I like, and doing procedures, and operating. And it pays for a couple of Ducs, travel a couple times a year, and a few other things  :)

I was in the Navy but didn't like the bureaucracy.  Then I got out and went to work in IT but didn't like the bureaucracy.  

Now I'm self-employed and my boss is an asshole.  I don't enjoy what I do and the freedom I thought I'd have being on my own has been replaced by endless hours and pregnant doging about taxes.  I get a one week vacation about every 30 months and live in dread of my inbox and phone.  

What was the question?

Grow up?

What's that?  ???

I wanted to come from "old money" but that didn't work out. Now I do the  [leo] thing which isn't too bad. I work 12.5 hour days but only 163 days a year. I 'm back in school now. I might end up doing something different in a few years.

Quote from: Mother on May 18, 2009, 09:55:50 PM
I always dreamed of staying out of jail

so far so good

Shit this was a serious question and i find myself compelled to answer...here is my life charlie brown

I wanted to be a Marine

I got to live my dream for 18 months

From 15-18 I was on a paintball team and made money playing

We were the enemy against the local marine reserve unit (6th ESB)

it was a blast until I fell one day and fractured my knee

When I was of age the Army came and tried to convince me that being a scout was the place to be

A recruiter came to where I worked and took me to lunch, he had ketchup on his tie and a button missing :-\

by the end of the day I was a Marine recruit

I went to MEPS and lied about my knee injury

they found out and wouldn't let me be active duty so put me in the reserve unit of my choice(nice of them)

until I got a waiver for my orthopedic

I chose the 6th because I knew them, it was in Portland, and I had listened to them for years

I wanted to be a combat engineer (1371)  "you go out and find mines"

My entire "career" was me going every weekend to the 6th ESB base on swan island or training exercises at camp rilea

They paid me and I even made PFC before the TiG date  [thumbsup]

But that was it, it was peacetime and no need for a gimped up Marine that might be an issue if he stepped on a rock wrong

So I got to go out and find a civilian job

It is my one and only love/hate thing in my life. I am proud of my time but I do not confuse myself with being anything close to the boys and girls who had to go train for real and play in the sand box

People can give me the "Once a Marine always a Marine" but I'm sorry that just isn't true

After that I became a Millright, spent a year at Reynolds Aluminum getting the plant back online

and

a year at Umatilla Chemical Weapons Depot building the incinerator for the HG shells and VX rockets

That was so much fun I came home and became a ski tech while I did volunteer fire and had a part-time job on an ambulance

Then in 2004 I thought I grew up and became a paid fireman, then I re injured my knee and that plan died

After my time in rehab I started working for FEMA and worked Katrina, Rita, and Wilma

When that mess was over I took a full-time job on the ambulance and left in the summer for various wildland fires and worked Gustav and Ike for FEMA

Now I'm primarily work on the Ambulance and just retired my Station Manager position at the firhouse to be domesticated

I'm happy and think I will grow up sometime in the next 6 months  [thumbsup]

Quote from: turtherlips on May 19, 2009, 08:59:13 AM
I design defense systems for the military (mostly missiles). It's pays the bills, but my childhood dream of being in the FBI seems like it would be more fun. 

I looked in your profile...

so I kinda cheated...

but I knew what company you worked for before I looked. ;)

I always wanted to be a surgeon when I was younger.  I did all of the things an over achieving kid does in order to look good to get into some fancy college.  I volunteered at hospitals, watched surgeries, followed around family friends who were doctors...    One day I was in the OR watching a pneumonectomy and the responsibility of having someones life in my hands scared the shit out of me.  I was 17 and didn't think I could handle it.  

Both of my parents are architects and my grandfather had a fairly large construction outfit.  I worked construction every summer growing up.  I liked getting tan, having rough hands and building stuff.  I decided that I couldn't swing a hammer forever so I went to architecture school.  I got my master's degree in architecture and was really high on it until I got my first job in an arch office.  It sucked, I hated almost every single client and sitting in front of a computer.  I quit the arch job and got a job in construction management.  I didn't care for that much either so I got a job designing and building custom cabinets and furniture.  I now do handyman work because people don't want to commission expensive shit.  


Last Monday I put down a confirmation deposit for a post bacc pre-med program starting this fall...  we will see what happens

Some days I feel exactly like this guy

Massage Therapist for Models (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1TcJKFB0sY#lq-lq2-hq-vhq)

Quote from: Mother on May 19, 2009, 04:50:49 PM

Now I'm primarily work on the Ambulance and just retired my Station Manager position at the firhouse to be domesticated

I'm happy and think I will grow up sometime in the next 6 months  [thumbsup]

You ain't domesticated.

:-*

When I was young, I wanted to own a pet shop (Yes, I was strange even as a child.), and my first "job" was catching tadpoles and selling them to a local pet store for 5 cents a piece (I was five.).
By age 12, I was working with wood, building tree forts, putting up shelves, etc. I graduated college with a B.S. in Biology, and a concurrent B.S. in Psychology, but couldn't find a well paying job in either field, and was burnt on school, so I started working construction.
Now I'm a master carpenter, and own my own company renovating classic houses, and if the economy doesn't improve soon, I'll be the guy asking "Do you want fries with that?"

Quote from: JBubble on May 19, 2009, 08:30:46 AM
I was also an uber geek who grew up in a house that started getting the earliest consumer computers available. We still have one of these working:

(http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/photos/apple_mac128.jpg)

We had a Heathkit computer!  And I grew up playing with punch cards.   Does that make me an uber-uber geek? :P

nothing to speak of. 3rd generation fireman. best i could do was chase smoke through the timber in the western states.
no glamour, pay sucked, knees are shot.

proud of it though...

Quote from: somegirl on May 19, 2009, 07:40:14 PM
We had a Heathkit computer!  And I grew up playing with punch cards.   Does that make me an uber-uber geek? :P

Yup. Wish I got to learn more about punch cards and see them in action.

Quote from: ducpainter on May 19, 2009, 05:27:50 PM
I looked in your profile...

so I kinda cheated...

but I knew what company you worked for before I looked. ;)

I think everybody in our neck of the woods is either related to, or knows somebody that works here.

Great topic!

I wanted to be a fireman since as long as I can remember.  I bummed around the stations in high school, and in college I volunteered for a department and received all my training and certifications free of charge.  I tested and tested and tested, but just couldn't get hired.  After college I used my degree and went to work in construction management, which I like, but I'm not passionate about.

Last week I got a call saying my name is coming up for a Chief's interview for a department I tested on over a year and a half ago.  Forgot the hiring list was even still active.  Completely caught me off guard, as I had pretty much given up on ever being a firefighter.

Now I'm stuck between pursuing it, or staying in construction where I'm doing well and advancing quickly.

Hmmm, a job vs a career, a means to an end vs a dream.  Big decision if I make it to that interview.

take the interview. you can always turn down the job (but you wont)

Nope. But...

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1386/1037141440_c2cce0eb1f.jpg)



Yeah...I'm afraid that you're going to have to come in on the weekend. Yeah...

Quote from: herm on May 20, 2009, 10:38:07 AM
take the interview. you can always turn down the job (but you wont)

That's what I'm thinking.  Not exactly physically or mentally prepared for the job anymore though.  Then again, the way layoffs are going in construction right now, I may be looking for a new job in the future anyhow.

is the job with Metro? PFA?

Had no clue what I wanted to do all my life. No dreams of this or desires for that. Content to live in the day and enjoy it. Was driving a buddy around a Friday afternoon and walked into the Navy Recruiting office. Left for Basic a few weeks later. That was almost 11 years ago. Planned on doing 4 while I figured out what I wanted to do. Been enjoying it ever since. Right now, I'm seeing where I want to retire in about 10-15 years. Tropical island in the Caribbean is top of the list. Serving cold beer and frozen concoctions to tourists. No stress. No managerial requirements, just a comfortable living.