I have always wanted to be a cartoon creator/animator and still do
( IC glitch oops) Impulsive thread, as far as I know it doesn’t exist yet. I saw someone ask the same question for people’s characters in the character discussion forum, so I thought I’d try it here!
Anyway, what was your dream job when you were a kid? Do you still have that dream job? Are you in that job now?
I used to want to be a scientist when I was around 5, specifically an entomologist. I think I just thought “bugs cool” and wanted to discover new species. I definitely wouldn’t want to be one now, I’m not big-brained enough and I’ve shifted a lot more to art than science. Nowadays I want to be a musician + artist.
Ironically, when I was a kid my dream job was artist, haha. I drew well for my age and my peers and teachers regarded me as creative. I had high hopes. Obviously that never panned out because my "talent" didn't keep up with my age. Turns out I'm not a naturally gifted artist after all.
As I got older my true dream job turned out to be writer, but that never worked out, either.
Anyway, what was your dream job when you were a kid? Do you still have that dream job? Are you in that job now?
I wrote a lot, but I never became a "real" writer; I never had the courage to try getting published, and although some teachers and peers insisted I was a good writer who should try, none of my peers were interested in actually READING any of my work. I figure, if nobody will even read it for free, then what is the point of getting published. (My family are especially uninterested in my work; they assume I write children's stories for some weird reason. I stopped writing children's stories when I stopped being a child. :/ ) Plus, the older I got, the more critical writing teachers became. They were all into literary writing (which I don't do) and writing for publication, so all I ever got on my work anymore was harsh criticism.
My experience trying to socialize with "fellow writers" online was even worse. The criticism turned to jeers and "Good luck getting an editor/publisher to take you seriously." It quickly became clear that if I'm not following strict industry standards, murdering my darlings, turning writing into a chore rather than something I enjoy, and making publication the end goal, I'm not a real writer and I don't belong in writing groups/forums. I stopped posting in them and eventually grew too discouraged to put more effort into keeping my writing sites updated as I haven't had an audience in many years. (My "audience" only ever consisted of one or two occasional readers who'd soon lose interest, anyway.)
I've written well over a million words of fiction but I feel like too much of a fraud to call myself a writer. I make sure to always include qualifiers like "amateur" and "unpublished" so nobody will take me too seriously or think I know what I'm doing. The real writers made it clear I have no idea what I'm doing and am not qualified to speak as a "writer." I love to chatter about writing but I avoid writers' spaces like the plague; I don't belong.
Writing is still my dream job but obviously, I'm not good enough and my particular "brand" of writing doesn't count. I'm too disabled by anxiety now to work any job, especially writing, which entails too much criticism and rejection; go figure. Plus, worsening OCD has made reading and writing nearly impossible for the past several years anyway and I haven't found a solution yet. -_-
i actually wanted to be a conductor! Frankly that died, but now I'm still wondering what i want to do
I cycled through a few different dream jobs. I know when I was in kindergarten I wanted to be a ballerina, then it changed to a few different things that I forgot. then in years 3 and 4 I wanted to be an author, in years 5 and 6 I wanted to be a toy designer. and now, ever since year 7, I want to make a cartoon with my characters or at least get a job in art somewhere. my dream jobs usually changed with what I was most interested in at the time, I wrote a lot of books in years 3 and 4 and I also sometimes had friends illustrate them haha. I had a huge toy collection phase which prompted the toy designer thing, I would also design my own bootleg Shopkin-looking things and other collectibles like dolls. now I draw a lot and am super passionate about my characters so I would love a job that involves both!! :O
don't remember my age around then exactly, but the only thing that really comes to mind is a mangaka at some point? didn't feel all that passionate about it or anything, but i always liked drawing, and also happened to be a bit of a weeb kinda kid, ok 😔 otherwise, i mainly recall being set on just wanting to be a hikineet asghkfsjhds (although now that i'm basically living that life for the indefinite future, i've realised how lame it is and i kinda hate it lmao). i was never all that excited about ideas of the future overall i think
idek what kinda job would actually be realistic for me now, aside from just something that does not require leaving the house and driving somewhere, nor having to interact with anyone much, nor being too busy/exhausting, nor requiring any prior college education or anything, etc... it's not a great situation. although really, in a most ideal world i'd probably like to be a musician of some sorts or something haha. a concept of which i have not managed to take really a single step towards within the span of my entire life, and don't feel particularly about to either. rip (and didn't mean to ramble so much in this bit, whoops haha)
i wanted to be an astronaut when i was really little. then i wanted to be a veterinarian. i think there was one point in which i wanted to be a fashion designer? more recently i wanted to be an animator
animator isn’t completely off the table but i still don’t rly know what to do
i wanted to be a herpetologist
decided i wouldnt be so good at fieldwork plus i was mainly only interested in snek
i think i also wanted to be an artist but that was a shorter phase and its good that i never tried to prepare for art job bc i refuse to draw what i dont like to draw loooooool (this is why i struggled a bit/ was kinda bored in artclasses loooool all i wanted to draw was fantasy stuff and monsters)
i think i also wanted to be a fiction author
i also always wanted to be a game dev but then i found out what its actually like (like this my whole life, i still stayed in the comp sci major tho but want a different job)(i specifically wanted to work at pokemon when i was a kid)
i think i still might be interested in game dev but i dont like the "you cant make your own games while working for us" rules