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What do you want to be when you grow up?

I’ve been with my now wife since we were 14-15 years old. Pretty much knew by end of HS we’d get married. I was a year older than her and she had a career choice and plans for college all along so I went to college to basically wait for her. She has a great job and makes good money. I have a job that doesn’t make great money but provides great benefits for our family and is generally very flexible, schedule wise for me. Kicker is, I dislike it very much. Never feel challenged or like I’m accomplishing anything.
I’m very happy with our life we’ve carved out in about every aspect, besides my job. I’ll bite the bullet and keep showing up, but it’s not thrilling to think about.
I would probably have joined the military if I had never met her. I had no idea after HS what I wanted and almost zero desire to go to college. Glad I went though. I learned a lot - lots of life skills, and made my best friends their.
 
noharleyyet said:
Think I could flourish as a secret mega bucks lottery winner.
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I'm kinda liking Harley's plan. I'd probably farm again if I went back in time, but relocating the farm (or state boundaries) to a more ag friendly state like Idaho would be nice. If I was a Dutton (minus the BS drama) and had the Yellowstone, that might be nice too.
 
Pucky Freak said:
The grass always looks greener elsewhere. I probably have it a lot better than I think I do though. I really enjoy getting a full month of paid vacation every year, and being able to retire well before 60. I had to draw a weapon on someone today. Comes with a price.
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I think we likely do the same job, and funny enough I had to do the same thing today. Fortunately I love what I do now, but I’m also young and dumb. Decent pay, great schedule, and great benefits.

I’ll be able to retire at 47 although I probably won’t at that age. No idea at all what I’ll do after that when I’m a real grown up.
 
I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I was a junior in high school. Took some career counseling test and scored “forestry worker, culinary arts and engineering”

I went with engineering and am approaching 20 years in aerospace, defense and now space defense and have enjoyed it all.

There’s something to be prideful about when your job helps keep our freedom and most importantly our war fighters safe.
 
Switched from landscaping to taking care of community water systems around home about 8 years ago and my body definitely thanks me. I do miss running the equipment. Company I work for is great, pay is good enough not great but they provide me with a truck, all the gas and maintenance on said truck it doesn’t cost me a dime and I get to drive it home. Don’t hate it at all don’t dread going to work. Lots of freedom, and good amount of vacation, 401k, the vacation and freedoms lets me hunt a lot more than your average bear. Freedom to go to kids activities if I need to just an all around good company.
 
7mm08mo said:
Switched from landscaping to taking care of community water systems around home about 8 years ago and my body definitely thanks me. I do miss running the equipment. Company I work for is great, pay is good enough not great but they provide me with a truck, all the gas and maintenance on said truck it doesn’t cost me a dime and I get to drive it home. Don’t hate it at all don’t dread going to work. Lots of freedom, and good amount of vacation, 401k, the vacation and freedoms lets me hunt a lot more than your average bear. Freedom to go to kids activities if I need to just an all around good company.
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Attorney for AK currently. I still miss running a big excavator or a 40” stihl.
 
Don't know that I've grown up yet but right now I'm doing almost everything I've always wanted to do and the rest is within reasonable reach so I have much to be grateful for and little to complain about.
My mom is a wonderful person who raised her kids to know how to learn new things and pursue dreams, and no matter what we wanted to do, no matter how outrageous it sounded at the outset, she always supported us. I know her influence has helped me achieve a lot and I hope I can do the same for my kids.
 
I'm pretty happy with being a remodeling contractor, but.......



If I were 18 again I'd find a job with a good HVAC/refrigeration company, and learn that trade as well as I could. Not necessarily because I would love the work, but there is a lot of demand in that field.
 
Nameless Range said:
I think about this a fair amount.

I believe it is a truth, that in this world there are thousands of people you could end up with and love, there are many places you could live and feel the conviction that it is country made for you to never leave, and there are a multitude of jobs that can be as good as you can imagine a job to be.

And yet, I married one woman and that will never change, I grew up on a chunk of earth I still live on and struggle to imagine ever leaving, and I have job that I often have to pinch myself in terms of the luck I feel to have it.
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Wow, this captured my feelings exactly. Thank you.

At the tail end of a career in hands-on natural resource management, I couldn't agree more. What speaks to me most about this is the "sense of place", ie this is where I belong. I'm extremely proud of a career working with the best people in the world, improving habitat and landscapes in my childhood home. I'm so lucky to have experienced such good friends and such a patient and content partner in what is arguable a tough f-ing landscape and lifestyle.

Once I leave this career, I'd like to work for weed and pest, thought about starting a fuels management/weed control/fence building type enterprise. Or possible tie on as a roadie for Whiskey Myers.
 
For me it's not so much if I could go back in time as much as what to do going forward...I made the right choice up front IMO, but times change. I'm so tired of red tape and the BS I just want to drive a dump truck from point A to B and call it a day or as Randy said, just deliver packages... :)
 
I would honestly change nothing.

My job has been exactly what I wanted to do, outside most days from mid-April through mid-November. Rest of the year flying a desk, but still interesting work.

Other good things are pension, insurance even after retirement, TSP, minimum 210 hours of leave a year, 240 hours of leave carryover, traveling all across the 8 states we cover.

Also a Union President that allows for some things that push me out of my comfort zone of the everyday job. Its also rewarding helping to negotiate things, work on various issues, find solutions to make everything run better at work. I enjoy the challenge of it all.

Seen a lot of country that very few get to see, on any given day I could be riding horses, atv's, dirt bikes, flying in both fixed wind or helicopter, jet boats, and always plenty of hiking. Over-night stays in the backcountry are quite common. Work on all land ownerships, public, private, Federal of all kinds, State, etc.

Its become even more perfect that I'm now able to start mentoring the next generation, hopefully helping them be smarter, more efficient, safer, and better than I was. Help them avoid some of the mistakes I made along the way and pass on knowledge its taken me over 30 years to acquire.

I've been fortunate...almost wish it wasn't going to be over in 6 years, could easily spend another lifetime seeing what's over the next ridge.
 
Well I grew up poor. I didn't like being poor. when I talked to my college advisor in 1991 she said computer science is the highest growth/starting salary. I got my comp sci degree. Kinda weird for a kid who went to a country high school and learned to type on an electric typewriter. wrote my first enterprise application at the age of 24. Was a team lead for about 15 years and now i've been an enterprise software architect for about 10 years. During this time I have interviewed hundreds of candidates, fresh out of college to guys with 30+ years of experience. There is such a void in this space that I tell any kid that doesn't know what they want to do to at least take a programming class. We start right out of school kids at $85k per year and they are all making $120k by the time they turn 30. There is such great opportunity for a young person right now that is willing to work hard. So thats my 2 cents. And its not worth that, my son is going the chem engineering route.
 
BuzzH said:
I would honestly change nothing.

My job has been exactly what I wanted to do, outside most days from mid-April through mid-November. Rest of the year flying a desk, but still interesting work.

Other good things are pension, insurance even after retirement, TSP, minimum 210 hours of leave a year, 240 hours of leave carryover, traveling all across the 8 states we cover.

Also a Union President that allows for some things that push me out of my comfort zone of the everyday job. Its also rewarding helping to negotiate things, work on various issues, find solutions to make everything run better at work. I enjoy the challenge of it all.

Seen a lot of country that very few get to see, on any given day I could be riding horses, atv's, dirt bikes, flying in both fixed wind or helicopter, jet boats, and always plenty of hiking. Over-night stays in the backcountry are quite common. Work on all land ownerships, public, private, Federal of all kinds, State, etc.

Its become even more perfect that I'm now able to start mentoring the next generation, hopefully helping them be smarter, more efficient, safer, and better than I was. Help them avoid some of the mistakes I made along the way and pass on knowledge its taken me over 30 years to acquire.

I've been fortunate...almost wish it wasn't going to be over in 6 years, could easily spend another lifetime seeing what's over the next ridge.
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Ha, just don't quit....sounds good....I have some of the same memories early on...I have been able to spend time over seas in different countries that I would have never seen possibly..etc.etc...that is why I said ...it's now different for me. I wish is was only 6 years for me :)....you don't HAVE to retire Buzz.... :)
 
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