I did try to pick another career! After working for the Federal government for fifteen years, I decided I wanted to be a nurse.

I attended evening classes, while working full time, for four years to get a degree in nursing. But after I graduated and obtained my nursing license, I realized that I was much too shy to be a nurse. I was hesitant to speak to patients, and I knew that would affect the care I could give.

So I kept working in my government job for another twenty years.

I don't regret getting a nursing degree--it taught me a lot, gave a big boost to my self esteem. I just didn't have the right personality for it.

The only "career" I ever had was being a wife and MOM!LOL I always thought I wanted to be a nurse but like Silverdove I was always very shy and probably wouldn't have been good at it.After my kids got older and were all in school I wanted to go to cosmetology school but couldn't afford it.I think I would have been good at it.I don't regret not having a career though.I have always been perfectly content staying at home and raising my kids.

I worked for the federal government for almost 30 years. During the last decade of my employment, I was an Executive Officer and then a Personnel Officer. They were both great jobs, and I'm grateful for the opportunities I had.

But if I could turn back the hands of time, I would become a forensic pathologist. I think that would be incredibly interesting and challenging.

I, too, would have loved to have been a nurse. I just really never thought I was smart enough. My best friend fulfilled the dream for herself. I am so proud of her.

Or, I would have loved to have built furniture. I love working with and smelling wood.

I would have gone into medicine. Probably a neonatal specialist.

Jodi-

I actually already did this. I got my degree in art, specializing in graphic design. Originally I wanted to be a teacher, but I was told by everyone, even my teachers, not to waste my time because there were no jobs. I didn't follow my dream. When my youngest was 3, I started teaching at her preschool. Almost 10 years later, it is my dream job. I absolutely love it. I should've followed my instincts from the start, but I'm just thankful I found my way back.

Sheryl

Ever since I was a child I wanted to be an archaeologist. I read every book I could get my hands on. I wanted so badly to go to Pompei.

I had to wait until I was an adult student (21) to get my post secondary education and I couldn't afford to go to the University to take Archaeology so instead I took Advertising at the local College. They trained me to be an Advertising Exec when all I wanted to was to be on the design side of advertising. Never followed through with that career. I wasn't cut out for sales.

I think now I wish I had learned how to drive and had my license because I would love to be a personal shopper.

Anne

I became an RN (not my choice, long story why) and loved medicine SO much, wanted to become an Orthopedic Surgeon. Until I had my 1st child. After the 2nd, it was "I want to be a stay-at-home mom and be there for the 1st word, 1st step, etc." We learned to live on 1 income (DH was making less than me) and I never became an Orthopedic Surgeon. And I've never regretted that.

Long before the likes of CSI came to TV, I had a fascination for forensics, so something in that field would be a career I would have loved. Unfortunately, I didn't have the brains or the opportunity to do so, so I became a secretary and then a SAHM.

I never wanted any career. I wanted to stay home, but that didn't happen. I had to work most of my life. I knew that I didn't want to be a teacher or nurse, but nothing else looked interesting to me except being a jet-setter and traveling. Should have married a rich guy the first time.

I went into teaching, then was a SAHM, then a SAHW for many years (with a number of parttime jobs like substituting/teaching kids' cooking classes--that I didn't really consider 'careers'.)

If I could go back and change my college major? I'd have been an architect. But when I went to school, girls usually went into nursing or teaching. It never occurred to me back then that being an architect was a possibility for a woman. And the one school I could afford to go to didn't offer architecture, anyway. So I took fashion and used my drafting talents to create patterns and clothes rather than houses. And didn't end up regretting getting out of my field at all, when I gave it up. If I'd become an architect, I'd still be working fulltime in my field, I suspect.

Now? If I were to choose something different? I'd go into law. I'm completely fascinated by the order of it, the investigations, the using facts to prove a point. The procedures. The ability it gives you to help right injustices. But alas, at my age, I'd be way too old to get a job when I finished the schooling--and who can afford law school these days, anyway, if they don't have decades available to work to pay off the loans--LOL

Before we had kids I taught school it was something that I always wanted to do.I did enjoy the teaching part but not dealing with parents on issues. DH is a teacher and athletic director and you wouldn't believe the crap that they have to take. I now have my dream job, staying at home with my 3 little ones and one on the way. I get to play with them, do gardening and take care of things. Now if I could get myself more organized and work on the cleaning part of stay at home mom, even though I have never quite been a big house cleaner.

Though I would love to do landscape design or be a personal gardener and help others plan out their own gardens. I love being outside and gardening, my house shows proof of that. But so many want the cookie cutter gardens with spirea, stella d'ora daylillies and things that you would see at McDonalds. Plus I am a cottage gardener and the more helter skelter the plantings the better lol.

Stacie
girlsingardens

I got a degree in Speech Therapy way back when I was 21 and finished college. I worked at that for a few years and then got pregnant. Back in those days, you had to take a year off. Then I got pg again. By the time I was ready to go back to work (when they were both in school) they had changed the requirements and you had to have a Master's degree to work as a Speech Therapist. The closest college to Tyler that offered that was where I'd gotten my BS and it was 75 miles away. There was no way we could afford for me to commute there for a few years, plus child care. If I had it to do over I'd have asked my parents to help me. I had a teaching certificate for all 12 grades, so I subbed a year and then taught pre-K until I retired. I'd like to have had that extra degree and stayed in Speech Therapy. I did get a Masters when Tyler got a branch of the U of Texas,but it was in reading.

cheryl -- me too! I would have loved a job in forensics, although of course I'm sure any such work doesn't have nearly the glamor portrayed on TV. I'm a college professor, by the way, and just love it -- never really thought about switching, although today's library science (so different from the librarians of old) also attracts me.

I still would have been a writer, but I wouldn't have waited until I was 40 to start. Guess all of those life experiences I accumulated gave me something to write about!
:-)

I became an RN
Then, after ten years of nursing in operating room, I got into pharma sales, and have been here ever since.

But if I could do it all over, I'd have gone either into the study of marine biology (as far as the study of marine life for medicinal purposes)

or

I'd have loved to be an astronaut....not just as the pilot responsible for flying the craft from here to there, but as a scientist who studies the limits of space, weightlessness and the effect on the body, growing crystals in space for medicinal purposes and the like.

I'd have been good at either activity from a physical standpoint because in all my scuba diving and flying activites over the past 50 years, I've never been seasick or had motion sickness or been squeamish in my life!

But now, too old, and looking forward to at least a comfy retirement as an armchair astronaut...then maybe I'll write some books or poetry!!!

I would love to have a market garden, some land to grow stuff and sell on a small scale one or two days a week. I tried it when we lived down south and was a sahm but by the time I got my garden big enough to grow enough stuff, we were leaving the area and had competition from a family down the road who brought tons of produce from TN. I still have daydreams about buying a few acres near town, building a house and produce stand on and farming. I'd also like to do crafts in the off season to sell during the spring and summer.

When I was in high school I wanted to be a veternarian but my counselor told me my math grades weren't good enough. I would've really liked to do that, more than be a nurse that I am now.

With some of the pressures I've encountered over my 35 years of working (non-stop), I would prefer to be a SAHAnything! For now, I wake up when the alarm rings at 5:15am, drive to the office, and sometimes I buy lottery tickets. Hey, ya never know!

I've had several quasi-careers...real estate agent, secretary, book keeper, military photo-journalist, security work both in a jail facility and the public sector, but I'd really like to try...

Sultry movie actress, 1930s type (Don't fall on the floor laughing!)

Dancer (Two left feet and no rhythm, but I love to dance!)

Speech Therapist

Travel writer

I was a banker for 12 years, I really hated it. If I had stuck with it I'd likely be CEO (lol) by now with a great pension to look forward to.
As a property manager, I don't have any benefits let alone a pension, so hopefully the family will be receptive to taking me in when I get old.
I started my teaching degree as well years ago, but had a family crisis in the middle of that and wasn't able to finish.
By the time I was able to go back I didn't have the money. Spent years paying off the student loan for the 3 years I did finish.
I hope to work another 5 years managing these buildings and then open a thrift shop or some sort of store...
Suzan J

I dunno. There are a lot of things I like, but I don't want to be around the public. I guess I'd be a kept woman. Which is what I am, more or less. Actually, I have really enjoyed staying home, taking care of my daughter, and my mother, and keeping house.

I had always wanted to be a nurse but didn't get to RN school until I had 3 kids and graduated when I was 41. Really liked working in the state hospital in Ca when the developmentally disabled, having worked there for 15 years previously as a Psychiatric Tech.

Knowing that we would be moving in the future was what got me back on the road to the RN degree as I knew I could get a job anywhere we moved. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would end up in Public Health which I didn't like when in school.

This county never had a health dept. until 1987 and I was hired as Adm. and knew nothing of what that entailed but learned from the ground up with a lot of knowledgeable people to help me, and enjoyed it up until a couple of years before I retired when the paper work became overwhelming. Spent more time with that than giving care to patients.

I never thought much about it but would have enjoyed working in landscaping. I do enjoy my part time job I have now, running my own little thrift shop.

I would be a teacher if I could do things over.

Something to do with the outdoors...a naturalist, biologist, park ranger.......something along those lines.....always loved animals and nature. Couldn't be a vet tho'....I'd probably cry every time I lost a patient.........

~Kathy~

Attorney

When I was a senior in college, no idea what I wanted to do in life, I took the federal government entrance exam. In the meantime, I met a boy from another college and fell in love. Then I got a job offer. The job location was near where my boyfriend lived, so I took the job and got an apartment. The job worked out, but the romance didn't. I met a guy at work and we became good friends. We ended up married (still are, 28 years and two daughters later). My government job with The Social Security Administration lasted 31 years (and several promotions). I wouldn't change a thing!

I'm like Kathy (Indianakat)
I'd be a vet ... but I'm too squeamish for that; I can't bear to look when they do something as simple as giving a shot, so can't imagine how I'd deal with other, serious stuff.

Park ranger
Dancer
Singer

I never had a career.

My parents pushed me into nursing school which I started when I was 18 years old, I was so naive, didn't even know what a bedpan was! Like others have said, I was way too shy and really didn't have the social skills needed to be a nurse... so I made it half way through the 2 year RN program. My parents wouldn't let me go to art/advertising school like I wanted (said there was no money in it) - so I ended up waiting tables.

I truly wish they had let me take a chance at something else.

I became an RN almost by accident and loved being a nurse for 40 years.
If I couldn't have been a nurse I would like to have become a teacher......I did a lot of teaching when I was a nurse and loved that part of it.

I would have loved to be a marine biologist. A career in banking couldn't have been farther from it. I love the water. Whether it's a puddle or an ocean. I also love animals and marine life so it would have suited me just fine.

A pilot

I would love to be a food critic for a newspaper. If not that then I'd like to be a lab tech--and smear things on slides all day and test them. Maybe I could do both--moonlight on the food critic job.

I actually had my dream job in public relations & advertising; a friend & I had our own business. Then DH had another job transfer and I had to leave Shindler & Zimmer. My friend & I were in the right place at the right time and were making $$ and having so much fun. *sigh*

I wish I could be the photo editor for the Wall Street Journal.
Seriously, though, I enjoy watching the weather. I would have been a meteorologist.

ron

The one I went to school for, teaching, was put on hold for 15 years to stay home with my kids. Now they are in school and I will teach full-time in another year or two.

I think I would also have liked journalism.

I could also have been happy being a career student if I had the money. ;o) I loved college, for the education not the parties. I truly enjoyed my classes and missed the academic environment.

What summer tx said. And I'm still trying to figure out how I could support myself and still live on the ocean somewhere in the tropics.

I'm a nurse and for the most part loved my job. I sure could do without some of the politics that go with the nursing field. I was and still am on the shy side but nursing does teach you to speak up for yourself.

If I had to start again, I would love to go into either somehing art and craft wise or horticulture. If I wanted something really challenging, then I would choose a forensic pathologist or a vet tech. Right now, I am content to be retired.

I would've loved to have been a wedding or party planner. But now I'd love a scrapbook store...a really cool, hip one that has a small daycare/child entertainment center, a cafe, little classrooms, a huge crop area and a shopping area with all the latest & greatest products.

A surgeon specializing in reconstructive surgery for children born with cranial/facial disfigurement. A boy I knew in childhood was amazingly transformed both physically and emotionally after receiving reconstructive surgery for a very disfiguring birth defect.

A veterinarian. When I was in my early twenties, I worked 4 years at an animal hospital, mainly assisting with surgery and office visits and loved it. It was like a part of my life rather than a job. I wish I had pursued that career path but I didn't have the self-confidence for college (I was terrible at tests in high school). Sigh.......where did the years go???

I would have been an actress, though not sure if on stage or film would have been my choice. In high school, I was in theater and LOVED every minute of it. I played the comedic sidekick very well, and loved working in front of an audience.

Unfortunately for my theater career, I am very risk averse. I went to college and majored in information technology, and now am a team leader for a fortune 500 company working in the IT department for sales and distribution. A VERY far cry from theater. As typical with my life, I picked the sensible option. It's gotten me far, but I think I will always wonder what would have happened if I took the chance.