When I Was A Young One

I can barely remember my ambitions when I was little, but I think I never wanted to be a doctor , a vet, or a cop like many of my friends did (I even remember distinctly not wanting to be a vet because I liked animals). The first thing I remember really wanting to become is a paleontologist. Yes, I even knew that word. I had watched the Jurassic Park movies and I was very much into dinosaurs for a large portion of my elementary school life. I drew them and enjoyed almost anything related to them. So, wanting to become a paleontologist was only natural by that point.

The next ambition I had, or perhaps I had that to varying degrees at the same time, I can’t really remember, anyways, the next ambition I had was becoming a horse whisperer. In addition to loving dinosaurs I was also into horses and horse riding. I loved being around them and being able to handle them, I also read a lot of horse-related literature. One of my favorite book series at the time was the Heartland book series, which was about a girl who lives on a farm and loses her mother, taking her mantle as a horse handler/trainer for difficult cases - I can’t remember if the term horse whisperer was used but it was essentially the same thing, handling the horse on the horse’s terms more or less. Then there was the movie The Horse Whisperer, I think that one was the one that introduced me to the term horse whisperer. But yes, I wanted to work with horses. Even in middle school I was still considering getting training as a horse trainer (nb. not a horse whisperer anymore). Then I moved onto wanting to become a zoologist. But that was a road that seemed to require me to take paths I didn't want to take and I scrapped it.

After paleontology and horse-related occupational dreams and such, I started to become interested in a career as a lawyer or a psychologist. The lawyer option had been there for a longer time, even in the sidelines when I had dreams of being something else, and it’s still somewhat close to my heart for some reason. I even applied to law school, but I was burned out from Matriculation Examination and other exams, so I didn't go to the entrance exam for that one. I still have the books for it on my shelf.

You know, a lot of my occupational ambition choices could be directly connected to the media I was exposed to. Shows I loved, movies I loved. Sometimes it is a bit disorienting: Do I want something just because I like this and that book/show/movie? Or did they just introduce me to the subject and I happened to like it because of what I'm like as a person? But I digress. Those were at least most of the things I wanted to be when I was a kid.

P.S. Hey guys, While I have your attention here, on the NICoA group on YP, I suggested trying have a skype conference with all of us online. You should comment on that thread.