Welcome to this week’s blog hop. The topic today is:
‘What did you want to be when you grew up, vs what you are today?
As an 11 year old, all I wanted to be was a writer when I grew up. Out of many primary schools that had taken part in a writing competition, I was delighted that my story had won first prize. The urge to be a writer has never left me. Okay, so my work isn’t up there with JK Rowling’s, but I bet I get just as much pleasure from writing a story as she does!
As I became older my parents and other family members started to ask me what kind of job I wanted to do. I was hopeless at Maths, Physics, Chemistry and anything to do with numbers/calculations (still am for that matter – I think I’m number illiterate). Mum told me quite emphatically that ‘people like me do not go to University‘, and therefore I didn’t even consider it. University was for professionals such as lawyers and teachers. I said I wanted to be a writer, and Mum replied that I could write in my spare time, as she had done, but when I left school I needed to earn some money.
I have always been fascinated by the workings of the body. I had a pipe dream as a teenager that I would become a doctor. I volunteered to work in a children’s ward when I was 16, and they gave me a white coat to wear. That was it! I was going to be a doctor and save people’s lives. Unfortunately reality struck the next year when I soon found out I would need 3 ‘A’ levels to gain entry to medical school, and disappointingly they needed to be the maths/science subjects that I was hopeless at.
I still wanted to work in a hospital, and when we moved to Suffolk in 1991 I was eventually able to do this after a few other false starts at jobs that did not keep my interest for more than a few years. I started out as a ward clerk in 2002, progressed up the ladder, and I’ve been working as a medical secretary since 2005. I finally found a job that suits me! I been lucky enough to take advantage of free in-house training to gain NVQ qualifications. I love learning new medical terminology, and what I’ve learned about the body since I’ve been at the hospital has helped me in my daily life. I’ll stay there typing clinic letters until I decide to retire. Some people never find their ideal job, but I’m glad to say that I have.
What did other blog-hoppers want to be when they grew up? Click the blue button below to find out, or just add a comment:
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lyndellwilliams47 said:
Nice post.
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Stevie Turner said:
Thanks Lyndell.
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aurorawatcherak said:
Reblogged this on aurorawatcherak.
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Stevie Turner said:
Thanks for the re-blog. How’s Covid-19 numbers in your area?
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aurorawatcherak said:
Alaska is isolated, so it’s easier for us to control. in a population of 800,000 statewide, there have been 191 confirmed cases, 23 hospitalizations and 6 deaths (though two of those were Alaska residents who were out of state when they got sick and were never actually here). About one-third of the cases are here in Fairbanks. We’ve had some community spread, but most of it started with people who had traveled out of the state. The fact that we have it at all points out the extreme difficulty of trying to quarantine a virus. It didn’t work in 1918 either.
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Stevie Turner said:
Yes, the trouble comes when trying to confine people to one place. It doesn’t work.
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aurorawatcherak said:
I used to work in psychiatry – as a transcriptionist and as an administrator and I enjoyed it, but I also enjoy now working as an administrator in the transportation field. I’m bored to death right now working from home, however. I’ve always wondered how I would feel writing full-time and now that it is filling in the downtime here — I kind of think I shouldn’t ever retire.
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Stevie Turner said:
I love working in the hospital, and wonder when I can ever go back.
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aurorawatcherak said:
I love my husband, but he and his dad are not really the same as coworkers.
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Phil Huston said:
What we fall into, by fate, cosmic decree or design, is generally where we should be. I want to put this on every one of this week’s blogs, but you’re the one –
“Sometimes it’s necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.” ― Edward Albee
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Stevie Turner said:
Good for Edward – he’s said it all there…
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dgkaye said:
For me it was a journalist or a lawyer. but I spent too much time getting a life that I ended up with neither and doing sales for much of my working life – the gift of gab! 🙂 xx
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Stevie Turner said:
I’m sure you were very good at it!
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dgkaye said:
Lol x
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Phil Huston said:
Yeah. Journalism (my father’s writing degree) or lawyer. I was told I had a line of BS for almost anything and Perry Mason was my calling. That relaxed “gift of gab, talk to anybody” served me well. Not nearly so well as what the synthesizer taught me – listening.
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P.J. MacLayne said:
I have to wonder if maybe you had a sort of math dyslexia vs. being number illiterate
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Stevie Turner said:
Maybe. I can manage addition, subtraction, multiplication and division if I write the sums down on paper. I can’t really do anything in my head, and cannot get to grips with anything other than these 4 basics. Still, I’ve always worked at jobs that have never needed numbers, and so I’ve got by.
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Darlene said:
I always wanted to be a teacher. But I got married and had a family young so I didn’t get a chance to go to university. My own fault, my parents would have supported me. Later I took distance learning university courses and got a certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language which I loved. Then I became an employment counselor and facilitated job search workshops. I loved that job as well and often did both jobs at the same time. So as an adult educator I was a teacher and my dream did eventually come true although by then I was in my 50s.
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Stevie Turner said:
But you managed it in the end! Well done, Darlene. Some people are never able to do this.
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franklparker said:
In childhood I switched from wanting to be a sailor, to wanting to be a doctor to wanting to be a pilot. Mum jokingly said I could be a medic in the fleet air arm! I ended up becoming an engineer because everyone said I needed a trade to fall back on if my writing ambition failed. They were right. When I left engineering to pursue a career in politics supplemented by writing it did not work out. It was the most enjoyable and productive period in my life but after 2-3 years I was back in engineering. I can honestly say that I enjoyed working on many different engineering projects in several different commercial arenas. That said, I feel the odd twinge of guilt at the environmental and other impacts of some of those projects. Some were intended to mitigate the environmental impact but I see now that most of those were sticking plasters where amputation would have been better!
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Stevie Turner said:
Ha ha, yes, I always told my sons that they needed a trade. They thank me now for getting them one, but didn’t when they were 16. All one wanted to do was play computer games, and the other one wanted to play his guitar all day.
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Phil Huston said:
Park the guilt. People can turn on their lights, flush their toilets and trust their water because you were an engineer. I have a friend who reminds me, when I feel guilty about something, “Without you involved it coulda been worse.”
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jenanita01 said:
None of the many jobs I had in my time made me as happy as writing…
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Stevie Turner said:
That’s very true. Trouble is, it doesn’t pay as well as the other jobs!
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richarddeescifi said:
I never knew I could write, until I did. Now, I love it!
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jenanita01 said:
Money isn’t everything… I can’t believe I just said that!
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richarddeescifi said:
I feel so grateful that I managed to fall into a job that I loved. Writing was never on my list until one day, I remembered a dream.
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robertawrites235681907 said:
It is interesting to read about people’s youthful ambitions. Most people who write as adults always liked to read and write, it is our common factor. I am so glad you found your perfect job. Maybe I will one day.
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Stevie Turner said:
Keep trying, Robbie.
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