It's silly to have to answer that question anyway, especially by those poor souls who dreamed of being President before taking a government class to know what that means. Even if they retained their dream of becoming President some day, it's a sad realization that they'd have to wait around 17 years after high school to accomplish their goal.
I never knew how to answer that sort of question -- especially when I wasn't even 10-years old yet. A lot happened that I can remember in my first 10 years, and I couldn't possibly have predicted where I'd be when I was 20. Even so, 10 years ago from now I at least had some ideas of intent.
I've always enjoyed video games since I first started playing them. When I was 16, I imagine I still had the dream of working for a big game company and working on the latest AAA titles. Also the dream of working on the side as an author and being a hit who makes it rich. Basically, doing my day job pro bono because I love it, but doing my hobby on the side to give me more than enough income to buy and do whatever I want.
What do I do now? I'm not a programmer or an author. Sure, in college I had a brief job as an SEO writer, but none of my published work has my name on it. I also had several jobs as a programmer -- and even went to college for programming! -- but none of those jobs were in the gaming field. I'd say as far as dreams go, my 16-year old self would be ashamed to look at a snapshot of who I am today.
But I think my 16-year old self would be wrong to judge so poorly.
Out of my two dreams, I chose to go to college for game programming over writing; I didn't want to go to college to be told how to write. Maybe debt swayed my decision, or maybe it was the uncertainty of workplace stability, but I'd devolved my major halfway through to the broader topic of Software Engineering. There was nothing wrong with that, as I'd certainly found enjoyment out of programming in general.
After college, I worked a few programming jobs. Skimming over the details, they always seemed fun "in the beginning" but eventually devolved into a chore. It was too much of the same, and I felt as though I was sacrificing my sanity for my work stability. When you start to receive a task and are already saying in your head "oh yeah, I know exactly what function this problem occurs in" before you've heard/read all of that task, you've hit a wall where you have no desire to continue working on a product anymore -- it's just too boring, and you spend all your day-to-day energy fighting to get yourself to care.
As for writing? It's almost pathetic to pretend that I write at all. I have a lot of ideas and play scenarios in my head around the same characters, but how could I have thought I'd have time for writing so much with a full-time job? With friends? While trying to retain any sort of social life? Don't get me wrong -- I still love the idea! -- but most times I try to set aside time to write something are spent staring at a blank Word document and counting how many times the cursor flashes in a minute.
There are other issues with the types of jobs I wanted, but this conversation could go on and on. The bottom line: dreams change. Sometimes this is driven by new information, and other times it's a result of changes of heart, compromise, or realizing what really matters.
Someday, I do want to be an author. I'd also love to make my own games. But the dream has taken vastly different directions that are almost more unreasonable. Maybe striving for the impossible is fun.
Besides, 16-year old me didn't understand love. And I probably wouldn't have found my handsome without making all the decisions I've made.
There's still time. I'm enjoying what I'm doing now, and sometime there will be time for my true dreams. Maybe around the time I could hit the age requirement to become President.
There are other issues with the types of jobs I wanted, but this conversation could go on and on. The bottom line: dreams change. Sometimes this is driven by new information, and other times it's a result of changes of heart, compromise, or realizing what really matters.
Someday, I do want to be an author. I'd also love to make my own games. But the dream has taken vastly different directions that are almost more unreasonable. Maybe striving for the impossible is fun.
Besides, 16-year old me didn't understand love. And I probably wouldn't have found my handsome without making all the decisions I've made.
There's still time. I'm enjoying what I'm doing now, and sometime there will be time for my true dreams. Maybe around the time I could hit the age requirement to become President.
