Wwyd?

[Squeaky]

What career would you pick if you could do anything you wanted? I'd love to train horses professionally, but I'm pretty sure that will never happen (thanks dad, for the mantra stuck in my head since I was a kid... it's not realistic, it's not realistic...).

[velogirl]

Funny you ask! Well, I'm doing the dream career right now -- I'm a cycling coach. But I have a hard time visualizing myself doing this in a decade or two. So, what would I do? I decided I'd be a florist! I love arranging flowers and I love working with my hands. Only down-side is standing on your feet all day. I guess that's why they make stools.

[short cut sally]

LANDSCAPING. My term means planting flowers, shrubs, trees, and seeding new lawns. Reality of my term. Mowing lawns. But I would enjoy just the same.

[mimitabby]

you know, i never figured it out. And at age 54, i don't think i ever will.

I like working with people, i like working with my hands, and I like to be alone too.

Guess I'll just retire and volunteer at the local highschool..

[7rider]

What career would you pick if you could do anything you wanted? I'd love to train horses professionally, but I'm pretty sure that will never happen (thanks dad, for the mantra stuck in my head since I was a kid... it's not realistic, it's not realistic...).

Independently wealthy philanthropist.

[Pax]

I've never been able to pick and just sort of fell into mental health counseling. If I could do any job though I'd be a farmer or own a bar in Key West.

[Haudlady]

Well, if I didn't have to worry about paying the mortgage...

I would be a weaver (I make hand-woven projects on a loom, but only as a hobby and for gifts - I would like to begin crafting for sale) who is also a cyclist and a horseback rider and driver. I would expand my farming activities. I would volunteer for the town Conservation Commission and the local SPCA, and work to coach low-income people with their budgeting and financial issues on a part-time basis.

In reality, I am all of those things already. The only thing I would change is that, although I love my job, I would rather do it 2 days a week (instead of full-time, which I am now) and do all the other stuff the rest of the time!!! Once I started thinking about it, I realized that I am pretty happy as I am!

Ah well. I'm 31 now... only 44 years or so until retirement.

(No, I didn't do the math incorrectly - I'm not expecting Social Security to take care of me, and as an employee at a non-profit I don't have any retirement benefits. Boy, do I miss that 401k with the matching dollars from when I was in banking!)

[snapdragen]

squeaky, are we sisters? We certainly appear to have the same dad....

I'd be a jewelry artist - metal work more than anything else.

Or else have a restaurant/bar.

[bikerchick68]

oooh... and this careeer would make at least what I make now right?

OK... then I'd either be a landscape designer, or a ballroom dance instructor.

I love both!

[Bad JuJu]

*sap alert* I love the job I have, and I have the job I love--I just adore teaching. I love my students. The only thing that would make this job better would be...no grading!

That would give me more time for my other loves: cycling, writing, kayaking, reading, and wine-drinking.

[cherinyc]

my dream since I was 4....to be an actress. not a celebrity, I just love acting - and the stage and performing, so to get paid to do so (and be able to survive) would be awesome.

[Bluetree]

I'd love to be an artist... and work with some of the finest racehorses in the world. Oh, wait. I am one!

Okay, then... I'd love to be an artist, work with racehorses AND make the same amount of money without having to work 60-80 hrs a week. (Still longing about that one... sigh.)

[salsabike]

I would be a weaver (I make hand-woven projects on a loom, but only as a hobby and for gifts - I would like to begin crafting for sale)

Hey, fellow weaver. Oddly enough, I do not want to make a living at weaving--I'm afraid that would make it a high-pressure, not fun, pursuit. Here are the things I wanted to be when I was a kid, and I still want to be them:

Cowgirl
Ballet dancer
diver/researcher with Jacques Cousteau
Psychologist
Archaeologist

I've done numbers 2 and 4. I've also done about a decade of policy research on economic/labor market development, which I liked.

I'd be happy to retire and do volunteer work with kids. I still like the kids as much as ever. Would like less pressure/responsibility. Would like to spend more time weaving and making art, but not as a way of earning a living.

[KnottedYet]

Fisheries biologist again. Invertebrates. (not those fish. jeez, booooo-ring!)

Gawd, I miss it.

I love PT, don't get me wrong, but the patients.... some of them are soooo high maintainence. Today was awful. Mammals are a pain.

[HipGnosis6]

I wanted to do the same thing as the people who saved me from going too far astray as a teenager - I wanted to teach music. That didn't really work out, so I moved on and persued an archaeology degree. That requires more math and science and chemistry than I could really muster, so I stayed in the anthropology realm but shifted to linguistics - along with a minor in Latin, I came close to but didn't finish a Master's in Archaeolinguistics. Doesn't that make me sound smart?

Well, I was afraid of turning my hobby into my career. I'd seen what that had done to my older brother; he was a prodigy as a teenager but is now so burnt out that he's miserable. But my straight-shootin' sense-talkin' mother put my head straight when I mentioned that. "Find another hobby," she said. "You're not like your brother who can't do anything else. Make clothes for a living, go to fashion design school - and when it's time to play, go ride your bike."

I'm a year into a bachelors program in fashion design, and while it's tons of work, it's the best thing I've ever done for myself. If I could do ANYTHING, it would be to work with an existing company to develop a line of extended-size athletic gear (including bike apparel, of course!). I'm in love with technical fabrics. And if possible I'd like to help establish fair trade apparel manufacturing in Asia and/or South America - if we can do it for coffee, we can do it for other industries.