It occurred to me this morning that I’ve basically achieved all of my childhood and teenage dreams except one, and that one’s in the works.

Living and working in Minneapolis was the main one. From my earliest memories (age 4 or so?) of being brought into the city to shop or tag along while the adults I was with ran errands I was in awe of the buildings, the people, the atmosphere. I began sneaking into the city as soon as I could take a bus or drive there as a teenager.
I moved into Minneapolis at age 18 and other than a few months here or there have been here ever since. And now I work in one of the very same buildings I was in awe of as a child.

I wanted to live in funky brick building in an apartment above a shop. That’s checked off the list. I wanted to live in Uptown. That’s checked off also, many times over.

I wanted to be a barista in a funky little indie coffee shop. Check.

I wanted to travel the world. I suppose you could say I’ve got a few continents to go, but I’m on my way. I’ve got enough under my belt to fall outside the US stereotype anyway.

I think I’ve seen every musical artist I’ve ever really wanted to, that isn’t dead. And I’ve no plans to stop going to see new artists I like.

The only thing left I can think of is I wanted to work in a record shop. And a friend and I are working on exactly that. Hopefully within a couple of years I’ll have a shop of my own.


So where are you at? Have you achieved your goals? Have you made some new ones?

I always wanted to be happily married and to be a mom! Ive got that!

I always wanted to have enough money to not worry about things and enjoy life...Got that..

The only thing I wanted which I'll never get was to be a rockstar..

I wanted to be a dustman..

..astronaut..

..Batman..

..musician

zaza said:

what is a dustman?

What's a dustman?

Is that like a garbage man?

Or do you only collect dust?

Yes, it is a garbage man. In Czech Republic every small boy wants to be a garbage man because of that big car

zaza said:

That's super cute!

And I hear it pays quite well. I mean, it probably has to, cause otherwise who wants to deal with garbage all day?

CarrieMpls said:

I've heard that too Maybe if I won't succeed at the uni, I'd consider that..

Good work Carrie

I really did not have a very clear list, well not a realistic one.

The main one was to live as far away from my abusive father as I could. I guess you could say I accomplished that one.

The other one was to be a drug/alcohol counselor and make addiction go away.
Ok, I was young and a wee bit naive.

I gave up the dream of being a counselor a long time ago.

Another major one was to have a HUGE animal rescue facility, mainly for dogs.
Closest I came to that was working & volunteering for several Animal Rescue Foundations.


My dreams changed a lot as I got older.
I never dreamed of being a mother until I was in my mid 30's.
[Edited 2/4/10 6:33am]

When I was young my dreams were:

1. To find my birthmother, and be happy! (did that, but she wants nothing to do with me)

2. To become an attorney (kinda working towards that, currently in school working towards my BA in legal studies so I can work as a paralegal)

Those were my only dreams as a child....

I've actually achieved none of my childhood dreams. Or even the things I dreamt about well into my adolescence. I just happened to fall into a wonderful life for myself.

Literally, nothing has happened as I'd thought or hoped it would when I was young.

violator said:

that sums it up for me too...

My dream was to be a veterinarian, unfortunately my other dream was to never actually apply myself or try or actually even stay in school (made thru high school at least).

You can imagine how that worked out for me.

I wanted to be President in 5th grade, a vet through most of middle school, then a photographer of some sort for the rest of middle school and part of high school. None of that happened. It probably never will. I never formed any new goals since I got married pretty much right out of high school.

JustErin said:

Why?

I wanted to be Wonder Woman.

I dreamed about this console with lit up buttons all over it, that was about 8 feet tall with a mickey mouse head.

zaza said:

I just wanted to be two of those. Batman, and a astronaut! I have a "Batman Begins" suit so, it's all good.

violator said:

I dunno, I just never tried in school. It's pretty amazing that I graduated to be honest. I literally did nothing, no homework, never studied, never even actually read a book for a book report.

JustErin said:

I did a verbal presentation/report on a Robin Hood book once...I didn't even crack the book, I bullshitted my way thru the presentation...steal from the rich, give to the poor, blah, blah blah...the teacher asked, "What about Maid Marian?"

my reply..."Who?"

johnart said:

I wanted to be one of the Goonies or a Jackson

shit don't always work out for us

funkycat00 said:

Now I'm envious..

and you what do you dream about?


[Edited 2/7/10 17:57pm]

My dream was to finish college, get a job, get my own home and live footloose and fancy free for about 6 years and then marry and have a family. Everything worked out except the marriage and family. Never married, never had children. The only regret I have about that is denying my father grandchildren. He would have been the BEST granddaddy.

Growing up in Oklahoma as a Baptist boy, highly sheltered from the world at times, I didn't know much about other cities. I had never been anywhere east, much less to New York. It was a foreign place to me.

When we were kids, we used to talk about the year 2000 (which was EONS away when you're in the middle of 1976). We did the math, and realized most of us at the time would be 32 in the year 2000. We thought "OMG That's so old!"

When I realized I'd be 32 in the year 2000, somehow, I had this vision in my head of living in a big place like New York, in a brownstone type building. I had no idea why, but that image always stuck in my head.

In October 1997, after living in Minneapolis for a while, and through a weird course of events, I moved to New York state. Comes the year 2000, and I'm living in a brownstone (2 family) building in downtown Albany.....celebrating my 32nd birthday.

Paleontologist
Ice hockey player
Ninja
Rockstar

Yep. My life's been a failure.

happily married - check
fun dad - I'm that
rockstar - I've signed a couple autographs

photographer - not really
neon artist - someday maybe I'll learn the ways

I wanted to be an archaeologist, except then Indiana Jones came along and made it look far too dangerous. I would have been content sitting and scratching away at dirt for months at a time.

i wanted to be a pop star i think settling on drag queen was a happy medium

and i wanted to be an eyptologist

ehuffnsd said:

history seems to be fascinating to kids - my boys have a shitload of Egypt books and posters and stuff, they are right into the embalming stuff