John Lewis: As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

The question

As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

John Lewis

U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

When I was growing up I wanted to be a minister. I wanted to preach.

Academy of Achievement interview, Chicago, 10 June 2004 source ↗

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Jessica Brown Findlay English actress

A ballet dancer. I danced from age two to 19. Giving up was not a choice; I had complications in an ankle operation.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 March 2021 source ↗

Paul Whitehouse Welsh comedian

A professional footballer.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 June 2018 source ↗

Emma Bunton British singer

An English teacher, and then a dance teacher.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 June 2021 source ↗

Chris Hoy British track cyclist, 1994–2013

Scotland’s rugby captain. My hero Gavin Hastings was captain when he came to our school for a training session when I was 10 or 11. I met him and was blown away.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 February 2018 source ↗

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Question How close have you come to dying? Death & what remains

On the Freedom Rides in the year 1961, when I was beaten at the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery, I thought I was going to die. On March 7, 1965, when I was hit in the head with a night stick by a state trooper at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I thought I was going to die.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Chicago, 10 June 2004 source ↗

Question How has a setback or failure set you up for later success? Failure & regret

I never thought that we would fail or that I would fail. I knew from time to time we may make some blunders. We may make some mistakes, but we were not going to fail.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Chicago, 10 June 2004 source ↗

Question Excluding property, what is the most expensive thing you have ever bought? Money & investment

Buying art…. But it makes me happy!

Recorded Vanity Fair, Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 6 December 2019 source ↗

Question What accomplishment matters most to you? Craft & work

Participating in a transformative movement that advocated human dignity and changed America forever.

Recorded Vanity Fair, Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 6 December 2019 source ↗

Question What do you fear most? Identity & self

As a participant in the movement, as I was sitting in, I came to that point where I lost all sense of fear.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Chicago, 10 June 2004 source ↗

Question Which problem are you still chipping away at? Craft & work

There are many battles. There’s so much that needs to be done. We need to protect the environment. Save this little planet. Not just this little piece of real estate we call America, but save the planet.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Chicago, 10 June 2004 source ↗

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