Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - what did you want to be when you grew up?

levite · 01-04-2011, 12:17 AM

When I was small, I wanted to be either a doctor or pilot. I found out later that for the latter, you need excellent eyesight and spatial relations perception; and for the former, you need to know math.

I have none of those abilities, so in my teens and early twenties, I wanted to be a great novelist and leading actor.

I couldn't seem to finish any novels, and I don't have the looks for a leading actor.

So in my mid- and late twenties, I wanted to be a director and playwright. I did actually direct some plays and get a couple produced, but they were small, and I found I couldn't live on what I made (that being as close to nothing as is possible), and I was tired of crap food service jobs-- plus I was beginning to observe the sabbath again, and everyone in theater works on Friday nights and Saturdays.

I then thought about being a chef and owning a restaurant, because I love to cook, and I am told I am good at it. But I love living in LA, and have no interest in being someone's sous chef, line cook, and general whipping boy for a decade or so before getting to head chef. And to open my own restaurant in LA would be too expensive: I looked around, and I found out that LA restaurants have a first-year fail rate over over 70%, and startup costs require venture capital of around $2Mill minimum, so that was out.

I kicked around for a few years before finally deciding to go to rabbinical school, so that I could teach Torah for a living.

Ironically, I can't find a job in Jewish education for shit, but I am about a third of the way through a novel, which my wife (who has taught writing before) says is very good....

Even more ironically, the one thing I never wanted to be when I was a kid was a rabbi-- my dad is a rabbi, and it never appealed to me.

Just goes to show that you never know how things will work out.

01-04-2011, 12:17 AM	#29 (permalink)
levite Minion of Joss Location: The Windy City	When I was small, I wanted to be either a doctor or pilot. I found out later that for the latter, you need excellent eyesight and spatial relations perception; and for the former, you need to know math. I have none of those abilities, so in my teens and early twenties, I wanted to be a great novelist and leading actor. I couldn't seem to finish any novels, and I don't have the looks for a leading actor. So in my mid- and late twenties, I wanted to be a director and playwright. I did actually direct some plays and get a couple produced, but they were small, and I found I couldn't live on what I made (that being as close to nothing as is possible), and I was tired of crap food service jobs-- plus I was beginning to observe the sabbath again, and everyone in theater works on Friday nights and Saturdays. I then thought about being a chef and owning a restaurant, because I love to cook, and I am told I am good at it. But I love living in LA, and have no interest in being someone's sous chef, line cook, and general whipping boy for a decade or so before getting to head chef. And to open my own restaurant in LA would be too expensive: I looked around, and I found out that LA restaurants have a first-year fail rate over over 70%, and startup costs require venture capital of around $2Mill minimum, so that was out. I kicked around for a few years before finally deciding to go to rabbinical school, so that I could teach Torah for a living. Ironically, I can't find a job in Jewish education for shit, but I am about a third of the way through a novel, which my wife (who has taught writing before) says is very good.... Even more ironically, the one thing I never wanted to be when I was a kid was a rabbi-- my dad is a rabbi, and it never appealed to me. Just goes to show that you never know how things will work out. __________________ Dull sublunary lovers love, Whose soul is sense, cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove That thing which elemented it. (From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne) Last edited by levite; 01-04-2011 at 10:45 AM..