As a kid, what was your dream job going to be? Mine was to be a nurse.

[hunter]

60. I was obsessed with radios and computers as a kid so everyone just assumed I'd be an engineer...

... like my grandfather. I assumed that too.

In college I decided I really didn't like hanging out with engineering students, nearly all men, so I changed my major to evolutionary biology which really wasn't a practical career move. I later got a job as a science teacher, which is how I met my wife, so it did work out well.

Teaching was the hardest job I've ever had. I had a lot of trouble "reading" the kids so I had to be really strict and I didn't like it. I wanted to run an easy-going classroom like some of the teachers I remembered fondly, and as my wife did, but that takes a lot of skills I don't have. I couldn't discern what minor mischief could be laughed off as opposed to misbehavior that would cause a class to spiral out of control so I had to be heavy handed about ALL mischief, which is not my nature. It didn't help that the school was underfunded, overcrowded, and a lot of the kids did not have much security at home, a few of them even homeless.

Later my wife was accepted to the graduate program of her dreams in another state and I followed her. After that, besides being the stay at home dad, I've had work reflecting my technical skills, which is sort of like being an engineer I suppose.