"I Swear By Apollo, The Healer..." or "What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?"

[Seil]

So yeah, hopefully this year, I'm going to be accepted into a nursing program at school. I still have to do an assessment test and get a few more pre-reqs in, but by this time next year, I could be nursing and stuff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath). It seems like it'll be pretty fun, and I'll get to be helpin' people and stuff while being paid well. Win-win.

Though I've been talking to a few people 'round school and they're talking about all the different directions their lives have taken and how they've gotten to where they are now, and I wondered... That question that your kindergarten teacher asked you, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Are you that thing, or did you change your mind after deciding that a monkey wasn't a good career path?

[bluestarultor]

Well, when I was really little, I wanted to own a Chuck E. Cheese. Obviously, that didn't happen, but the idea was that I'd get to be surrounded by greasy pizza and singing robots and arcade games forever. Ahh, youth. :D

After that, I considered being a veterinarian, until I learned the harsh truth that I'd have to put animals down, and given the only animals I could ever kill were mosquitoes, that went out the window.

Then for a while I let it drop until my mom suggested pharmacy, since I loved and was good at chemistry. I spent several years under the assumption I'd be a pharmacist. And even ended up going to like the top pharmacy school in the country. But in retrospect, it wasn't even my calling to be a pharmacist, just something that everyone assumed I'd be, and that I'd spent years convincing myself that I wanted. So when I ended up not having the drive to do it, I had no idea what to do.

Then I picked up a programming course. It was just on a whim, but I loved it and was good at it. The funny thing is that I remember talking to other people in high school about programming and that I really lit up hearing about it, but I was too focused on pharmacy for it to go anywhere. If I'd followed that instinct instead of actively turning it down to focus on pharmacy, life might have turned out very differently.

[Doc ock rokc]

Mine has been quite forward in comparison to Blue's
When I first beat Mario brothers (2 years old it astounded my brother) I said I wanted to make levels for it (thinking that Mario was the one and only game).
When I first got on a computer (3 ish) I put a password on the Partition and said I want to play with computers.
When I got Into school I played around on both computers and Typewriters and said I want to Make something to put Typewriting on the computers but better
When I went to middle school I wanted to Make Video games again (after playing with RPG maker).
When I was told that through a test to be determinant if I was retarded or not that I got the HIGHEST GRADE IN THE DISTRICT (record still holds) they told me to get into Engineering Naturally I went for Computers.
I joined the Computer maintenance class and took to that like a fish to water.
And Now I am excepted to a collage Going to go into their Computer science Engineering.
So...yeah.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Mmhm, I remember for a while I wanted to be something like a paleontologist or a marine biologist, at least until my interest in art really kicked in. Toyed with studying medicine, but decided I was too squeamish around the real stuff.

[Amake]

I never wanted to be anything. I wanted to help people, to write and to have fun. And I'm doing all of those things. :D

[Krylo]

Independently wealthy.

And no. I still haven't figured out how to pull it off without working (and if you're working you aren't really independently wealthy). However, if I could get a one time investment of $500,000 I could get a reasonable facsimile via high dividend stocks.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

I've always wanted to get into the Game Simulation Industry. But lately after a bunch of unfortunate pit falls college wise. I'm beginning to think I'm not going to be accomplishing anything out side of writing online stories/comics publishing novels.

[Julford Hajime]

Honestly, I've never cared what job I ended up getting. I was perfectly happy with myself when I worked Burger King drive-thru, and I've never had a job that made me feel any less content before/during/after work on any given day. I'm simple like that, I suppose >.>

Like, I'm going to school now to become a certified teacher, but I'm considering dropping out to join the military for a long list of reasons I won't go into here, but that I can honest-to-God say begins with "Less work involved".

[Professor Smarmiarty]

When I was younger I wanted to be a tiger. That didn't work out exactly.

[Krylo]

When I was younger I wanted to be a tiger. That didn't work out exactly.

You could still shoot for cougar.

Same family and all.

[phil_]

I went to college to become a psychiatrist because it was a job I felt the robots could not replace. I now know a great deal about psychology, and it is an utterly useless thing to know a great deal about.

[Arhra]

I studied infomechatronics.

The end!

[Geminex]

When I was younger I wanted to be a tiger. That didn't work out exactly.

Pussy, I'm still aiming for world domination. Though I'll keep myself fed with electrical engineering.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Pussy, I'm still aiming for world domination.

But why? I never really understood the point of it.

[CelesJessa]

The very first thing I remember wanting to be was a treasure hunter. (That was right after playing Final Fantasy 6.)

Then for the longest time I wanted to be an artist, before I even started drawing and such.

After that I wanted to be a movie director.

Then a translator.

And now an animator. Funny how that all turned out.

[Nikose Tyris]

Software Tester. I'm an angry little troll that likes to pick things apart. I can think of no better job for me, except maybe a critic for some television program like Idol.

[krogothwolf]

I wanted to be a pilot, then I found I had crappy eyes and I couldn't get a bionic eye. Now I work with computers. I still wish I could have been a pilot. I think I would have made a very good one.

[bluestarultor]

You could still shoot for cougar.

Same family and all.

Actually, no. Cougars aren't part of Panthera. They're more closely related to house cats.

They're still awesome, though.


Edit: Wait. Fuck. No, you're right. Same family, different genus.

[Wigmund]

I have no idea what I want to do when I grow up...and I'm 26.

Maybe I'll figure it out later.

[Overcast]

Wanted to be a psychologist under the strange persuasion that they can seriously help people due to personal experiences in my young life. Then I didn't take enough extracurricular in High School and let my pride get in the way of my responsibilities to certain classes which messed me out of most scholarships I ran into.

So I joined the Navy and now I'm working on being an Electronics Technician. And really just trying to figure what I'll do eight years later.

[Fifthfiend]

Dear every one of you guys that is college-age or thereabouts, switch your major / career path right now to anything that will get you a job in the financial industry.

There are literally two jobs in the entire world, 1. the financial industry, 2. people who get robbed by the financial industry. Ask yourself which of those two jobs you think you'd rather do.

[BitVyper]

Ask yourself which of those two jobs you think you'd rather do.

How about the one where I get to have a life outside working in the financial industry so that people above me can get all the money anyway?

[phil_]

They can't rob me if all I own is debt!

[Fifthfiend]

They can't rob me if all I own is debt!

That's pretty much how they rob you.

How about the one where I get to have a life outside working in the financial industry so that people above me can get all the money anyway?

If you're playing Monopoly as the banker and you can't figure out how to slip yourself extra $100s I don't know how to help you.

[Wigmund]

Dear every one of you guys that is college-age or thereabouts, switch your major / career path right now to anything that will get you a job in the financial industry.

There are literally two jobs in the entire world, 1. the financial industry, 2. people who get robbed by the financial industry. Ask yourself which of those two jobs you think you'd rather do.

If I want to dick over the world, I'll go back to Walmart and finagle my way up the management chain until I'm a bigwig at the Home Offices.

[BitVyper]

Spending every waking moment trying to be one of the few who "makes it" and sucking the next guy up the chain's dick for twenty years so I can embezzle a bit of money here and there doesn't really sound like a good deal.

[DarkDrgon]

when i was 6, I wanted to be a pilot. When I was 13 I wanted to design/Develop Magic: The gathering sets.

im 18, and i want to be a pilot but Im color blind. so now Im going for *Ahem*: Aircraft Technician

EDIT: Oh, and eventually I want to be the owner of the New York Rangers, so I can find and trample Sather.

[Fifthfiend]

im 18, and i want to be a pilot but Im color blind. so now Im going for *Ahem*: Aircraft Technician

I dunno if you've considered this or not but it seems like over the long term it would get really aggravating to work around a bunch of people doing what you dreamed of doing but can't for reasons completely outside your control, causing growing resentment that builds and builds until you can't help but take it out on your wife, children, and the various victims of your inevitable spree killing.

Or at least that's what TV Movies of the Week have taught me and I've certainly never had cause to doubt their sterling grasp of human nature.

[Fifthfiend]

Spending every waking moment trying to be one of the few who "makes it" and sucking the next guy up the chain's dick for twenty years so I can embezzle a bit of money here and there doesn't really sound like a good deal.

Which is why I told you go into Finance, where I would say that anyone who can't steal a king's ransom and be on a golf course by three is probably functionally retarded, except that even that probably isn't that much of an impediment.

EDIT: I mean if you don't want a job where the entire economy is designed to drop money into your hands and call you a genius for breaking its fall, and even if you catastrophically fuck up to the point where your entire company shouldn't even exist anymore, laws will shoot through Congress on greased rails to make sure the money-spigot keeps pumping.

[Osterbaum]

I wanted to be a pilot, then I found I had crappy eyes and I couldn't get a bionic eye.
Same thing with me, when I was in elementary school. After that I got really interested in history during middle-school and the gymnasium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_%28school%29). But at the gymnasium I also became interested in biology and ended up studying that at the Uni. Now I'm happy enough with my choice, but I do sometimes wonder wether I should switch to history or political science...

[Seil]

Which is why I told you go into Finance, where I would say that anyone who can't steal a king's ransom and be on a golf course by three is probably functionally retarded, except that even that probably isn't that much of an impediment.

That depends on your boss, Fifth. (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=994)

[phil_]

How do you think the person on the other side of the phone afforded not only a shark tank, but also whale sharks to inhabit it? Think of how big a tank that is, Seil. Fifth wants us to be like her, not like the Office Space wannabe going into the shark tank.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

When I was little I wanted to become an Inventor. Everyone thought I was retarded so no one cared to get little IG to a decent school. That and the sloppy German educational system (Finland's seems so awesome from here) prohibits me from visiting a university (I could still go to the US, probably, with my qualifications. I'd just have self teach me some maths. Which shouldn't be much of a problem, except I'm also lazy) despite having an IQ of, like, 10000 (not that this number would mean anything, even If I came close).

I'm currently in my job training as SLAVE and as soon as I'm done with that I'll have to do six month's of community service. (Hopefully I'll get to be the guy who writes down notes at the university for a girl with some disease which renders her unable to write. Which is unlikely, because stuff like that rarely happens)

After that I'll study all the sciences and other useful shiznit on my own and say "Fuck you certificates, you mean NOTHING!" to fulfill my childhood dream. And I'll also say fuck you if you wanna make me honorable doctor or some shit for inventing a machine... that... makes
LOVE & PEACE.
And cures all Disease.
Got cancer? That's cool!
I can cure it with this here tool!
Though, you won't educate
This world doesn't need more hate.
It's Peace and Love and glowing clouds
Which bring happiness to the crowds
Push this button, if you will
Now it's time for the windmill (http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/images/townsend-windmill.jpg)
Also: You should be fine now, but you can press this button again any time you want.
AWESOME!!!
Guitah!!!
(solo)

I could also need some musical training so I can write decent music instead of the mediocre stuff I'm making now. At least someone could teach me how to read notes or something.

[DarkDrgon]

I dunno if you've considered this or not but it seems like over the long term it would get really aggravating to work around a bunch of people doing what you dreamed of doing but can't for reasons completely outside your control, causing growing resentment that builds and builds until you can't help but take it out on your wife, children, and the various victims of your inevitable spree killing.

Or at least that's what TV Movies of the Week have taught me and I've certainly never had cause to doubt their sterling grasp of human nature.

i think Ill be ok. Its more the Planes then the actual flying that I care about.

[Seil]

How do you think the person on the other side of the phone afforded not only a shark tank, but also whale sharks to inhabit it? Think of how big a tank that is, Seil. Fifth wants us to be like her, not like the Office Space wannabe going into the shark tank.

Well... yeah. (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1154)

[Fifthfiend]

How do you think the person on the other side of the phone afforded not only a shark tank, but also whale sharks to inhabit it? Think of how big a tank that is, Seil. Fifth wants us to be like her, not like the Office Space wannabe going into the shark tank.

Look at this man here, getting it and being correct.

That depends on your boss, Fifth. (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=994)

Going to jail because you wrote a retarded Superman-movie plot to pick your boss's pocket for loose change is what happens when you realize you've shat away your working life doing something other than robbing the entire world every day for fantastic, so large you can't believe they're not imaginary amounts of money, IE working in the financial industry.

EDIT: We live in a world where if you steal so big (http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-59.htm) that it threatens to collapse the entire national economy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_International_Group), the government will reward you with massive amounts of free money, some of which you will have to spend on lawyers and a miniscule fine if anyone can ever be bothered to assemble the evidence of your many shameless crimes. We live in a world where the companies who do this will congratulate themselves for being smart enough to take free money from the government by paying that taxpayer money out to their employees in the form of billions of dollars worth of job performance bonuses.

I am telling you this because I like you guys and because I figured out how the game was rigged too late to get a seat at the table and by God I don't want to see that happen to you. Be the people being congratulated for fucking up. Be the people taking that sweet, free money. Break off your piece of the American Dream.

[Si Civa]

That and the sloppy German educational system (Finland's seems so awesome from here).

Yes, Finland's education system is awesome. That's why we hate our system (it's too good for us).


I once may thread where I stated that I'm trying to apply in university to study political history and I haven't changed my mind but another choice is cultural history. I just don't know what the hell I'm going to do for living after studying, but that's the system's problem, not mine. Or so I hope kinda.

I also applied to art college (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammattikorkeakoulu)*, but it has couple problems.
1. I was feeling very distressed when choosing when making decision to apply there and it's made worse that there's nothing else that is to my liking in college system here.
2. I don't think I'm good enough in arts. (I know people who are better than me and to who arts mean more than to me in the end)
3. I fear that my interest in doing art might die. It can grow but die. Coin toss really.
4. I probably just couldn't admit myself that I didn't get into university. (Where situation 3. is going to happen with history, oh yes)

*Link cause educational systems are different! College might not be the best wor hered but I use it still.

[Osterbaum]

I think they call it a 'vocational school' or something.

[Si Civa]

It would be upper actually, 'cause vocational should mean secondary education.

Stupid foreigners and their stupid different school naming.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I once may thread where I stated that I'm trying to apply in university to study political history and I haven't changed my mind but another choice is cultural history. I just don't know what the hell I'm going to do for living after studying, but that's the system's problem, not mine. Or so I hope kinda.


The only real history is metahistory. You get to spend all your time shitting onother people's histories.
Political history is an absolute wasteland of the structuralists vs everyone else and it's not pretty.