what do you want to be when you grow up? (573 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 0.85 on 32 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Smoothe (View user info) at 2004-11-17 14:17:47 EST
What do you want to be when you grow up? When a child is asked this question it is expected that he or she respond with a career choice. Who started that trend? I wanted to be a brain surgeon when I grew up until I found out how much school I would have to do. So then I thought it may be easier to be a trash man. I don't know when this trend may have started, or when we first started to ask our children what they want to be when they grow up. I don't know why nobody thought to respond with anything other than a career choice.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Wise, courageous, kind, diplomatic, self-sufficient, inquisitive, resourceful, adaptable, flexible, honorable, loving, none of these words are even close to the prodded responses we get. I want to be a fireman. I want to be a rock star. I want to be president. I want I want.
It is through this logic that what you do for a living is what you are, that children from the time they are old enough to talk, know no different. We focus on facts and figures, charts and graphs, but not the self. Not the person behind the work. This is very wrong in my eyes, and I don't know if it's just that nobody ever thought about it before, but it must be stopped.
I want to be a good person when I grow up. Fuck being the president, cause he ain't one of them.
User Reviews
Submitted by missflibble (user info) at 2005-04-22 10:08:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm so gonna coach my kids on that exact thought when i have some. i love that.
I wanted to be a train driver until my grandad told me you don't get girl train drivers. s'a load of cobblers but now i'm kind of glad he put me off. wouldn't mind the money they get, but it's dangerdosh.
Submitted by mrwolf (user info) at 2005-04-22 08:47:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I thought this post was pretty insightful. I wanna be not tired anymore, grown up or not.
Submitted by Merlina (user info) at 2005-04-22 08:27:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I want to be a florist
I want to smile every day and I want that smile to rebound onto someone else
I want to be able to buy red lemonade in England
I want to learn and learn and learn
Submitted by CookieLass (user info) at 2004-11-24 15:40:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 for making me think about it. I want to be what I already am, so I guess I'm doing good.
I also want to be Mrs. thescottish
Submitted by InkyFingers (user info) at 2004-11-24 15:28:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I Want to be... I'll tell you in 50 years.
Submitted by YELLOW-MAN (user info) at 2004-11-17 21:40:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You know what the problem is, most people always say "I WANT TO BE" or "I WANT THIS" or something to that effect but never take the necessary steps in order to getting or being what they want. It's either too hard or too much work. So inevitably we take the easy route telling ourselves it was worth it even though we know subconciously it isn't.
Submitted by slowlyrotting (user info) at 2004-11-17 16:19:44 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
that last line got you a minus 2
the rest of it got you a minus 2
i'll be nice and just give you one of them
Submitted by triple_optics (user info) at 2004-11-17 15:50:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
i want to be free.
or is that break free?
Submitted by Istaros (user info) at 2004-11-17 15:48:39 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Donitsu2002 (user info) at 2004-11-17 15:32:32 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
not you
Submitted by Sassmasterr (user info) at 2004-11-17 15:25:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
i want to be
Submitted by Durae (user info) at 2004-11-17 15:15:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
taller?
Submitted by miss_behvn (user info) at 2004-11-17 15:10:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You have a good point. GC I agree with you, I wanted to be a pediatric nurse. I like helping people and I like kids. Those are qualities about me that led me to my career choice of...drum roll please...a pediatric nurse.
Submitted by mikethescottish (user info) at 2004-11-17 15:05:05 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I always dreamed of playing in defence for Aberdeen Football Club (that'd be soccer to most of you). My would-be career was initiated as a child by my standing on the goal-line (beehind the goalkeeper, no less) and getting in the way of the pathetically weak shots that my 10-year old peers toe-punted towards the goal. All was fine, I was respected and even admired for my resilience (I had a few semi-impressive bruises)- that was, until Kevin appeared. Kevin was approximately the size of John Travolta's mansion, and possessed all the grace and wit of a sledgehammer. But he was an avid supporter of Glasgow Rangers. We were never going to be friends.
The next lunch break, we headed down to the pitch. I took my usual position, leaning against the goalpost like an underdeveloped Cline Eastwood, chewing on imaginary chewing gun (the school had banned it after some girl got it stuck in her hair). I watched, sneeringly, as the Weedjie goliath of Kevin sauntered into view. The ground shuddered. Several of the girls watching from the shade of the apple tree looked shocked. I stood my ground.
"Yir dead, wee man."
I pretended like I hadn't heard him. I just looked past him, towards the centre, where kick-off was due. His primitive brain realised and he waddled towards the centre. He seemed to stop to think of something witty, and came up with-
"Ah'm gonna kill ya, wee man."
Ha! You really think you're Eric Cantona, don't you? Wee man? Ha! My brain pounded with my inherant superiority. I'll show you, you fat Hun fatso (I was 10- if i'd have know to call him a fat cunt, I would have). Someone shouted 'go!', and the game was on. The ball darted from scuffed shoe to scuffed shoe. Hasty, high-pitched shouting. The girls giggling. A badly-cleared pass, and the ball is headed towards me. Supremely confident, I raise to my full (weedy) height and prepare for another patented Mike 'hit it away with my stomach' save. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Kevin. He shambles towards their striker, and, with a single shove, sends him flying into a pool of mud. The poor kid starts crying. Kevin ignores him and half runs, half shambles towards our goal. Our keeper, being sensible, fakes a dive and runs over to the corner flag. I stand my ground. Just you and me, fatty boy. Just you wa...
Thunk.
He hoofs the ball with all his (not inconsiderable) weight, and it speeds towards me. I don't even have time to brace or duck before the football hits me square in the crotch. Everything goes black.
I wake up in the hospital, where my Mum tells me that it's going to be OK, that there was no damage done. My itsy bitsy teeny weeny peener is covered in bandages. As I lie there, stunned, I ask what happened to Kevin. Turns out he got expelled, the kid he'd pushed into the mud turned out to have gotten a broken leg for his troubles. I smile to myself as I drift off to sleep, after fighting with the lego men my brother had brought me.
I saved the shot, though.
Why did I just tell you that?
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2004-11-17 15:01:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Smoothe (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:47:19 (#)
Ranking: 0
I have to disagree with that GC, I think that kids don't quite understand the qualities it takes to be in certain professions. The only things they see is what they are in to at the time and what is cool.
The underlying point is: you are what you do, and that is what I disagree with. Kids should know that you work to live, not live to work. Can't we all agree here that work sucks and we would rather be paid to perfect the pastimes that we have harbored based soley on the fact that it makes us smile?
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I have to somewhat agree with you, because you didn't hear a lot of kids saying they wanted to be an astronaut right after the Challenger and Columbia accidents..
But, while you work to live, you will sometimes find yourself so consumed by your work that it becomes your life. If its something you feel strongly about, anyhow.
Workaholics do exist, after all.
Note that we're talking about real careers, not your average fry cook.
Submitted by AP (user info) at 2004-11-17 15:00:15 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
You have a good point.
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:53:24 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I-I-I wanna be a lifeguard
I-I-I wanna guard your life.
I-I-I wanna be sedated
I-I-I wanna fuck your wife.
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:52:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"I want to be a good person when I grow up. Fuck being the president, cause he ain't one of them."
I want to be President because people shouldn't have to make statements like that.
Submitted by great_angst (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:47:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I want to wake up in a bad mood, commute for an hour, and growl at dozens of people who bounce into my office saying "Good Morning, Grumpy-wumpy!". I want to sit under blazing fluorescent lights while I bark orders all day to people wearing bedazzled dresses made out of t-shirts, high-water Dockers, and worn-out loafers with tassels on them. Occasionally I want to sit through long, boring meetings where I daydream about winning the lottery. Then I want to commute home for another hour, skip the gym, watch some reality TV, and masturbate while bad internet porn secretly loads a virus or spamware onto my PC. Then I want to go to sleep and start the whole thing over again the next day.
Uhhh ... wait. I must have already grown up.
Submitted by Smoothe (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:47:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I have to disagree with that GC, I think that kids don't quite understand the qualities it takes to be in certain professions. The only things they see is what they are in to at the time and what is cool.
The underlying point is: you are what you do, and that is what I disagree with. Kids should know that you work to live, not live to work. Can't we all agree here that work sucks and we would rather be paid to perfect the pastimes that we have harbored based soley on the fact that it makes us smile?
Submitted by the_lone_stranger (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:44:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I just want to be the Kicker of All Ass.
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:41:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Actually, I think the reason why kids say that is because they make an archetype out of the job based on encounters with people who do them or what they read and see on tv/movies.
You average out the good qualities of several vets, for instance. loves animals, the animals generally like them, they make your doggie feel better so it comes back to play with you again, etc.
The positive aspects of the person portrayed through the choice in profession. Thats all.
Submitted by AwesomeJohnson (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:40:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I wanna be a junkie when I grow up.
Submitted by Smoothe (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:36:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
GodChicken, I am far from an idealist. This is just something that permeated my brain, just trying to have some feedback.
Submitted by earth_collapse (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:35:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Well... I am going to school for film... My life goal is direct a movie.
If that doesn't work out I'll still enjoy working in Film.
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:34:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Bob the Builder.
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:30:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
but I'm in a bad mood.
and idealists suck.
have a averaged out zero.
Submitted by TheSpook (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:29:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I want to be happy!
Submitted by maiorano84 (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:26:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I wanna be an astronaut.
Submitted by Sofa_Ace (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:26:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I want to be a thief. I even tought myself how to pick locks. Seriously.
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:24:01 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
I want to be the guy that kills you.
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2004-11-17 14:23:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was little. Then I went to a vet's office on Career Day in 8th grade and horked in the trash can during a routine cat-neutering.
Long story short - I'm a telemarketer.