Identity & self

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

197 answers answered between 1930 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A

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.

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Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 2 Arts and letters 165 Politics and public life 14 Business and finance 4 Technology 1 Sport 10
Read by age Any age Before thirty 3 In their thirties 33 In their forties 36 In their fifties 50 In their sixties 43 Seventy and beyond 25
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Winston Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964
At the end he asked me if I would like to go into the Army. I thought it would be splendid to command an Army, so I said 'Yes' at once: and immediately I was taken at my word. ... I was told later that he had only come to the conclusion that I was not clever enough to go to the Bar. However that may be, the toy soldiers turned the current of my life.
Recorded Chapter of his autobiography, written at Chartwell in 1930, Winston S. Churchill, My Early Life (Thornton Butterworth, 1930), Project Gutenberg Canada, October 1930 source ↗
Mario Molina Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
For me, it was just a thrill. I just remember thinking at that time, this is the sort of thing I would like to do, if I could. I did not come from a family of scientists. My father was a lawyer, my older brother was a lawyer.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Sun Valley, Idaho, 29 June 1996 source ↗
John Lewis U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966
When I was growing up I wanted to be a minister. I wanted to preach.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Chicago, 10 June 2004 source ↗
Mellody Hobson Co-chief executive and president of Ariel Investments
And all the while I was growing up, of course, there were just constant conversations about money and money being tight and how are we going to make ends meet and sometimes not having enough money. And it really just made me committed to living a life with much more financial security.
Recorded Farai Chideya, News & Notes, Leading Ladies series, NPR, 22 March 2007 source ↗
Shinya Yamanaka Stem cell biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2012
I was born in Osaka, Japan. It was 45 years ago. My father has a small factory in Osaka, and we lived next to his factory
Recorded Academy of Achievement interviewer, Academy of Achievement interview, 2008 source ↗
Alice Munro My favorite writer is Alice Munro—all of her books. She’s a tremendous writer and has taught me so much about writing.
As a child, Munro was constantly telling herself stories. One of the first was “The Little Mermaid,” by Hans Christian Anderson, whose ending she couldn’t bear.
Recorded Andrea Walker, The New Yorker, 4 October 2008 source ↗
Emeli Sandé British singer
I always wanted to be a singer, but I also wanted to be a doctor. I almost got there: I did four years and got my neuroscience BSc.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2017 source ↗
Martin Sheen American actor
Golfer, priest, police officer, teacher and, after going to the movies, actor.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 March 2017 source ↗
Roger Allam English actor
When I was a child, it was a bus driver or engine driver; then, when I was a teenager, I went to the theatre and wanted to be an actor.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 June 2017 source ↗
Nick Grimshaw English television and radio presenter
Genuinely, the host of Radio 1’s Breakfast Show.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 June 2017 source ↗
Alison Moyet English singer
For a while I wanted to be a policewoman, but I didn’t have five O-levels.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 June 2017 source ↗
Shirley MacLaine American actress and author
At three, I knew I was too tall to be a ballerina, so that wasn’t going to happen.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 July 2017 source ↗

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