Dreams

bstratt

bstratt

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Canuck
This is probably more appropriate for old farts like me, but the thread from PHXAvi8tor got me thinking.

As a kid, what was your dream? Did you live it or get sidetracked ?

As a kid growing up I wanted to be a paleontoligist - had every book on dinosaurs going. In high school I figured out I didn't want to live in a tent in Outer Mongolia and switched to my second love - pure & applied mathmatics. Went to university for two years and then switched into business as I didn't want to be either an actuary or teacher. Fell into banking.

Always wanted to fly but got married in university, buying the first house, kids, etc - didn't take my first lesson until I was 44.
 
I can not remember having any dream jobs as a kid. Dreams get crushed mercilessly by the reality of life.
 
Since age 5 or so, my dream was always to fly. But I had to go to work after high school, then got married. I told my soon to be wife that someday I would learn to fly. I should have seen her blank stare as a warning sign. :(

Finally earned my PPL at age 44 also. That was Feb '98.
 
I never, ever dreamed of being a lawyer. But it's not a bad job, and I have clients I love, so it ain't so bad.

My first grown-up job, I worked for Bell & Howell, ran around with a toolbag fixing broken things and making people really happy; I worked with a bunch of really good people who knew what they were doing and gave me the resources I needed to do a good job. Engineers deigned and plants manufactured very well-engineered and well-built stuff- nothing from Japan, Germany or even Rochester could touch it for quality. I woke up every day and pinched myself- "...they pay me to do this?"

Company always had plenty of cash in the bank, and good employee benefits.

All that, of course, is why there is no longer a Bell & Howell company- it had to be bought up and split up. When I was 25, I well and truly thought I'd work for them forever, and that it was a good thing.

===

As for flying, yes, I always dreamed of that, but did not do it until I was 43. Better late...
 
when i was really young i wanted to cook pizzas. for a little while i wanted to run a drive in theater. then i decided i should be an airline pilot. that was silly. currently test pilot is it. or full time Glider Pilot.
 
I'm living the dream. I get to make music for a living, I get paid to fly airplanes.
I never did score with Princess Leah tho'. That dream may never come true. I did date someone that looked like her tho...close enough I suppose.
 
tonycondon said:
when i was really young i wanted to cook pizzas. for a little while i wanted to run a drive in theater. then i decided i should be an airline pilot. that was silly. currently test pilot is it. or full time Glider Pilot.
Click to expand...


How about Glider Test Pilot?
 
yea that'd be OK too Lance. Id pretty much have to move to Europe though, as pretty much all glider production is over there. And I'd have to do some pretty fantastic flying to be able to prove that Im any better than the pilots they've already got. They know how to make good glider pilots over there.
 
Living an eight year olds dream until someone tells me I can't. Then probably back to computers if I can remember the stuff I learned 10 years ago. Or a trash man which ever will pay better.
 
Dreamed about being a pilot for fire fighting crews, since the neighbor flew a Baron for the Forest Service as lead plane. He gave me my first ride in GA around 4th or 5th grade.

In Junior High, along came Jacques-Yves Cousteau and life aboard Calypso as a marine biologist sounded like the perfect life.

So, as now an IT consultant, the closest I got to those dreams was Navy Aircrew, private pilot and recreational scuba diver ... close!
 
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I always wanted to be an astronaut. Growing up in the 60's who didn't. Obviously I did not achieve that dream but that is ok. I did get to work on Space Shuttle Program in the 1980s and I have met many astronauts and at least one from every space program the US had.

The other dream I had was to be a pilot and fly. Got that one.
 
I had a lot of weird dreams and probably still do, but I guess you guys meant ambitions/dreams when I was younger.

Funny enough, I actualy wanted to dig up dinosaur bones when I was younger. I had every plastic dinosaur they made. Sometimes instead of the typical story book, my mom would read me about one of my favorite dinosaurs. I still remember them too although not sure I can spell them, lets see.. the Quetsocoatlas (flying dinosaur as big as a cessna), Parasorapholis, and the Velociraptor. I had always loved airplanes too. Somewhere in between 4th and 6th grade, I decided I didnt want to be outside in the hot sun brushing off old bones that never did anything. Flying sounded like more of an adventure and I would get to visit so many different places. So I took up flying.

oh, and btw, if any of your kids want to know, its almost impossible to get enough tape that will stick on a foam glider rigged up with two plastic propellers and rubber bands. Although tape works great for add on elevators and rudders. ...I was a curious kid.
 
First thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a Doctor/Surgeon. Then in Second grade I wanted to be a Test pilot. In fourth grade I got glasses so figured the test pilot was out but I could still be a bush pilot. Maybe fly around doing hernia surgeries. In the background, I've always wanted to be a cowboy.
I became a surgeon, moved to mid Michigan, won a saddle at the fair, bought a pregnant horse, and a place to keep them. Had to herd my neighbors blind bull calf back home (so I figure that makes me a cowboy)
Then I learned to fly, flew to Alaska and taxied around with lumber strapped to the struts (makes me a bush pilot, doesn't it) and like to fly out of grass strips that 70-80 percent of pilots won't look at(still haven't done any really hard core back country strips yet though--there is still time)
Dreams do come true!

Barb
 
I dreamed of flying constantly when growing up. Got my license at 18. Never dreamed of being an engineer. I just kind of fell into that.
 
Having conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony, and played Bach, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, &c; having been an astronaut; having made the greatest scientific discoveries in the history of mankind; I refer y'all to: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/6821/thurber.html

who, in a sense, is my hero. I have, of course done none of the above. But they all were, in some form or other, part of my dreams, along with myriads of others...

Oh, well...

FLY HIGH!

Jim
 
I wanted to write books. My family called me "the storyteller" when I was ~6-7 because of the tall tales I'd make up. Doing magazine work is a little removed from that, but I did get one book out the door (sort of, in Used Aircraft Guide) and I have three folders on my hard drive that hopefully will be coming to a bookstore near you someday. My wife says one of them in particular would make a good movie. So there's my jet money. :)
 
First thing I remember wanting to be was a weather forecaster on TV. I know,strange; but I remember thinking Jim Tillman's job (a well-known TV weatherman in Chicago at the time) seemed pretty neat. Looking at clouds was fun too, until they started to turn that special gray-green color in heavy rainstorms, upon which I would head for the basement...

Then I wanted to go into the Air Force, and fly the airplanes that Dad worked on. unfortunately, at the time, it seemed that unless you had 20/20 unaided vision, and were male, you were out of luck. So, the flying thing got sidelined for a while.

Thought of being a professional musician, but was very nervous about having the need to play for paycheck detract from playing just for the love of it.

Time to move to more practical aspirations...

Went to school bent on becoming the world's best actuary, then I met one while babysitting their kid, and reconsidered... thought about being CFO, but it just didn't seem like there you got to do fun stuff, although I'd love to be an adviser to them...

Dropped into healthcare along the way, found I had a knack for and interest in it (the science was cool), and luckily get to use love of numbers, advisory capability and even musical talent from time to time (for the company talent show; that video tape will never die...).

Picked up the flying again around age 30, once I worked enough for some funding. Looking forward to combining work and pleasure in angel flights, once I have enough PIC hours. Interesting how many senior execs find pilots fascinating people...
 
I dreamed of being a fighter pilot, and I got as close to that goal as my rotten eyesight would allow -- 2000 hours as a fighter WSO. I've been a pilot nearly 40 years, and flying is my passion, my job, and my hobby. Things I could have done differently? Perhaps a few, but in the end analysis, I can't say I've not had a ride worth taking.
 
gkainz said:
Dreamed about being a pilot for fire fighting crews, since the neighbor flew a Baron for the Forest Service as lead plane.
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That's something I wanted to do too, but when I was much older. Then I was too old. The cutoff for hiring is 40.

I don't think I had any dream jobs in mind as a kid. I wanted to be a hobo with a knapsack on a stick. When I was the age to supposedly be choosing a career I had no idea. At different times I thought about being a photojournalist, criminologist, veterinarian, documentary filmmaker, and various other things including what I majored in, landscape architecture. I never considered being a pilot, probably because the only pilot job I knew about was airline pilot which seemed too rigid and establishment to me, not to mention unattainable, because I don't have great uncorrected vision which they required at the time. I knew that small airplanes existed but I never really considered that you could make a living flying them. I'm not sure that I had ever heard of a business jet but they were in the very early stages of development back then.

I occasionally wonder how I ended up as a pilot. Sometimes I think is was fate and being at the right place at the right time. Other times I think I would have found a way to make it happen anyway. In any case think about my life today and am pretty sure that if I could have imagined it as a kid it would have been my dream.
 
I have a dream about hearing another Pilotcast episode... any chance that will come true? ;)

When I was a kid, I dreamed about becoming anything from an airline pilot, to a train engineer, to a firefighter, to a cop, etc., but the pilot was the big thing. Well, I lost sight of that in late high school, and I went to school to major in Mass Communications, emphasizing in TV/Radio. I really enjoyed the video work, and thought about going into broadcast journalism. Then, I took an intro to anthropology class and found out I like Archaeology, so I took on Anthro as a double-major. The idea was that I would conduct Archaeological studies, and then make documentaries about them. Well, I failed a Cultural Anthro class my last semester, and didn't plan on sticking around for another semester to finish up, so I just dropped it to a minor. Now, I'm working for a software company in a job that I just kind of fell into, but am rather good at. Unfortunately, it's just not fulfilling to me and I'm starting to look at going into something more aviation-related, but I'm not sure what. At least my current job has given me the means to pursue my dream of becoming a pilot - I currently have 23.4 hours and should be soloing this weekend for the first time!
 
As a very young kid, I wanted to be a veterinarian. As I got closer to the teens, I just knew I wanted to be a cop, but flying always facinated me. My dream job would have been becoming a helicopter pilot for a PD. I never worked at an agency big enough to have a air division, so that part didn't work out, but I'll never regret going into law enforcement. Looking back though, I wished I'd had gone into the military first though. I might have ended up in law enforcement aviation if I had, but I had a blast in patrol so I have no real regrets.
 
I wanted to be either a marine biologist (i.e. swim with the dolphins) or an astronaut.
Now I'm a physics professor, and flying in AK... the dream has shifted around over the years, but I'd say I'm living it now.
(I did apply to the astronaut program once, just for kicks, knowing that my eyes aren't good enough... it was one of the nicest rejection letters I've ever gotten.)

BTW, did anyone catch the interview with William & Harry the other night? Matt Lauer asked them what they would want to do professionally if they weren't princes, and William said "helicopter pilot" with very little hesitation.

--Kath
 
kath said:
BTW, did anyone catch the interview with William & Harry the other night? Matt Lauer asked them what they would want to do professionally if they weren't princes, and William said "helicopter pilot" with very little hesitation.

--Kath
Click to expand...

I saw that. He said at first that when he was little he wanted to a Policeman. Then quickly added "But not now!" :D
 
I wanted to be a ranger for the Park Service or the Forest Service. I actually was a park aide one summer for the California State Parks. I found out how boring and low-paying those jobs really are. But I lived the dream in another way, by becoming a field biologist and then a geologist, both jobs that let you spend lots of time outdoors camping and hiking and getting paid for it. After a 7-year diversion into administration, which meant very little (though not no) field work, I am tickled to death to be back in the professoring business, which allows me to be paid for doing field work (among other things).

Judy
 
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