Day 08: Occupations I Wanted As A Child

1) Marine Biologist - Specifically, I wanted to work with the creatures that are found in the water. This started as early as when Flipper was on TV and Free Willy was in theaters (1995 and 1993, respectively). I went to Sea World in 1995 as well and distinctly remember petting the dolphins and stingrays, and I think that officially sealed the deal for me - I wanted to do that all the time! 

I only know went in 1995 because the date is stamped on the back of this ticket. P.S. That's the difference between 1995 & 2012. Crazy.

  
2) Veterinarian - I was born an animal lover. My first two best friends were a cat named Tiffany and a dog named Crystal. Although my mother was very strict about the amount and types of animals that were allowed in the house, I don't recall a time when I didn't have one kind of pet or another. I was also an avid horse rider and rode both English and Western style, and even almost went to a private equestrian school - until I found out it was all girls. Could you imagine? I understood how completely crazy girls were at a young age. 

3) Firefighter - My grandfather was a firefighter, so I naturally had a brief moment in time where I wanted to follow in his footsteps.

4) Writer - When I was a kid, I read at a rate much faster than my class mates did. I was reading Mercer Mayer books to my senior kindergarten class and had a library card because I actually wanted one. As such, writing my own versions of the stories I had read quickly became a favourite way to spend my time. Consequently, my favourite assignments were book reports and creative writing. Weird kid, no?

5) Actress - I'm sure this spawned from my love of reading and bringing my favourite stories to life. It didn't hurt that I had a friend who was equally as interested in pretending as I was and we'd spend our days acting out various movies and TV shows. We got pretty elaborate sometimes, I even remember rounding up a bunch of neighbourhood kids to do a film production of one of the Star Wars movies! I did the whole drama class and drama camp thing in elementary school. I was in plays at both school and at an outdoor theater. Eventually I had a talent agent and had a few extra roles in a commercial and a couple of films (nothing major). I still miss it, to this day.

6) Zoo Keeper - Working with tigers and zebras and giraffes would be so cool. So cool. 

7) Archaeologist - Spawning from my general interest in all things history and culture, I was (and still am) fascinated by museums. I would have loved to have been present for the finding of an important artifact. But more specifically, I really wanted to be a: 

8) Paleontologist - Blame The Land Before Time and Jurassic Park for this one. Dinosaurs are seriously Awesome. I even have a whole Wanelo collection for Dinos and Dragons.

RAAWRRRR!

  
9) A pet shop owner - A (gasp!) properly run one! That's all nice to animals and helpful to people and stuff. It may still happen, some day. Who knows?

10) A candy shop owner - Willy Wonka style. Do I really need to explain this desire? Hell, I'd still enjoy that!

11) Private Investigator/Spy - Probably inspired by Inspector Gadget and Nancy Drew. Likely the cause of my appreciation for TV shows such as Chuck, Missing, Gossip Girl (think about it!), Person of Interest, Suits, etc. 

12) A ballerina. Not because I am particularly girly (hah!), but because I love the way ballerinas move. It's such a graceful form of dance. It didn't take me long to find gymnastics which gave me the grace, strenth and balance of a ballerina without the tutu and weird shoes.