“She wished, as almost all kids wish at one point or another, that she could turn into a pterodactyl and fly away and never come back.” “It's a thrill to fulfill your own childhood dreams, but as you get older, you may find that enabling the dreams of others is even more fun.” - Unknown.
Where I come from, the general idea is that the younger a child is when he/she decides his/her career path, the more level-headed, serious minded such child tends to be. I can't begin to point out the flaws in such idea.
Going back, down memory lane, I remember my career choices at the time of my childhood were influenced by quite a number of factors, ranging from the popular bandwagon effect, environment, media, fascinations among other reasons.... even whimsical ones.
I remember quite well, even as a 4 year old, when asked the question; "what would you like to be when you grow up?" my young, inexperienced mind would automatically fire back - a medical doctor. This was a really popular choice among kids my age with the exception of those that favored the choice of engineers. Even at that age we all knew the importance of the medical practitioners in the society and I thought they were the best paid, maybe after the president of the country. The thought of being almost as rich as the president pleased me greatly, so I nurtured this dream for some years till I got bored and discovered something even better....
Further by, in my pre-teen years between ages 10 and 13, I decided I was done with the medical doctor choice and I became enraptured with the thought of being a robotic engineer or mechanical engineer, basically anything that had to do with with tinkering with robots and high tech machinery. At the time, like other kids my age I really loved superhero comics, movies and cartoons. I particularly liked the Marvel Iron Man character and was impressed by his gadgets and "toys". My love for the superhero had awakened a new obsession in me - I was certain that I could be the next Tony Stark or own my own Stark Industries or LexCorp (I was not really interested in world domination anyways :-D).
I carried on this obsession till I found the perfect choice..... or so I thought.
Ever since I was a kid, I'd always loved animals and ensured I learnt as much as I could about them. I particularly loved cats and dogs which was a pity, because I never really had a pet of my own. So you can almost imagine my joy when I learnt that I could make a living out of taking care of animals i.e a vet. Unfortunately, my happiness was cut short when I was told by adults that my choice was not a viable career choice in my country, Nigeria. Their argument was - Most Nigerians don't own a pet and even among those that own, a higher percentage of them do not take them to the vet regularly. This was bad news for me. I thought this was my best choice of all time.
I am currently a student of microbiology in a university and while it's not unbearable, I often look back and really wish I could have been a vet. Childhood was a very fun period of my life but we all have to grow up someday. I miss my childhood.