When you were in grade school, what did you want to be when you grew up? Why?

I wanted to be either a teacher or a waitress- probably because those are the people I regularly saw. Life took a different direction and neither of those dreams became a reality-(thank goodness.)

A chemist- I ended up hating science though.

A nurse, I always wanted to help people as so many helped me. I thought their profession was a very worthwhile and admirable one. Never followed my dream though, many 'adults' at the time talked me out of it, I was easily swayed in my youth, that the job had a lot of unpleasant work to it. Still today now that I work in an in-personable computer job I often wonder what kind of nurse I would have been. I still like helping people in all areas of my life, I'm the one with the candy jar at my desk, the coffee pot, the one who always says yes when someone needs assistance no matter how busy I am. And yes, I like the 'dirty' unpleasant work in my current job, what I failed to understand in my youth was that everything in life consists of plusses and minuses, just to different degrees.

I wanted to be a mommy. I thought about having different careers, seriously considered becoming a teacher for a while, but the drive to be at home and take care of my children was greater than anything else. I'm young, I can still go to college and have a career when my children are in school, so there is still that possibility. No matter what I do, I want to work with children. For now, my job is to raise my daughters, when they are a little bit older, I might also explore other things as well.

Train engineer, to see the country and drive a train

I wanted to be a veterinarian, a teacher and a nurse.

I always wanted to be a marine biologist. I've always loved the water but unfortunately I've had so many problems with my ears and after numerous surgeries, my ears can't handle the pressure of going underwater any more than 4 or 5 feet. The fact that I can't dive kind of ruled out studying the ocean floor.

Like many a girl in parochial school, I toyed with the idea of becoming a nun, but not just any nun, a Carmelite, (vow of silence) -- the worst idea ever, because if there was ever a person who cannot shut up, it's me! (little did I know I'd end up living like a nun, anyway! )

I wanted to be an archaeologist and paleontologist (yep, I knew the difference). I had an intense love of ancient history. One of my earlies memories was watching a documentary on King Tut's tomb on laser disk (remember those?) over and over. I eventually settled on archeology. I kept that intention right up to high school, where the guidance counselor told me that since my family was poor, and only private colleges offered archeology, I should give it up. Like an idiot, I believed her.

When I was very young, before 5th grade or so, I wanted to be an archeologist or an Egyptologist. I realized early that there wasn't much call for that kind of work. My father has one of his Master's Degrees in Anthropology, but he taught with it. He even passed up some really cool offers to go on digs.... he didn't want to sleep or go to the bathroom outside.

When I got a little older, I wanted to become a lawyer. I probably would have been good at it, but my father tried to talk me out of it, and he won.

Then I was going to go into medicine, as a physician or get my PhD in Psychology and work in Clinical Psychology. Money or lack of it, kept me out of Med School. At first I really didn't want to go into nursing, I hate taking orders from people. But, it was there and I wanted into the medical field by any means necessary. But, getting my IBCLC which allowed me to work in Lactation allows me to work with little or no supervision and I LOVE it.

I wanted to be an Air Force pilot and fly fighter jets.

I wanted to be everything really. Examples: Painter (artist once and house painter another time), teacher, fire fighter, dancer, actress, psychologist, doctor, animal lawyer (I was like 5 and I thought animals needed lawyers because of abuse), etc.

I thought I wanted to be a writer or an artist. How wrong I was!

I wanted to be a marine biologist. I've always been fascinated with sea life all my life, even today, but unfortunately it's not even close to what my profession is now.

Like many little girls, my first desire was to be a dancer, after I got a Ballerina Barbie for Christmas. (she even twirled when you held her little pink crown and spun her!) Of course, I went to all sorts of dance lessons - ballet, jazz, tap, even ballroom (Latin dance being my specialty, since it's in my blood) but after a while, I changed my mind. I'm not sure what it was, but suddenly, I wanted to be a singer. And boy, did I pursue it! Here I am now, several years later, in a college for performing arts, going for a BA in vocal performance, and previously starred in 6 different operas and musicals, my 7th one opening on campus in May. I plan on making this dream come true, even though so many people say I won't make it since I'm not exactly...the thinnest actress there is, if you catch my drift. (Hey, I'm working on losing it, don't judge! )

A veterinarian.