Originally Posted by Two Bills (Post 2359611)

According to my dear wife, I never grew up. :shrug:

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy (Post 2359230)

LOL! I was a captain of a coastwise oil tanker and deck officer on ocean going tankers. . don't worry, its alot more boring watching the ocean go by than the glory of the title!

I know that certain events in our childhood shape our lives with/without our consciousness. For me it was being exposed and programming an old Digital Equipment computer at age 13, in 1972, and spending Saturday nights either playing sports or programming the computer with binary finger switches. Through high school playing with that computer, I learned the very basics of how a computer worked, so I naturally loved it when PCs were born, and had a macintosh from 1982 onward, and my first Multiplan (the MS predecessor to excel) spreadsheet was tracking lottery ticket numbers to win money so I didn't have to work

That was my journey to geekdom!

as far as sports, my parents didn't believe in a sports career, but learning a trade to fall back upon in hard times. They were depression era traditionalists.

Originally Posted by Two Bills (Post 2359611)

According to my dear wife, I never grew up. :shrug:

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy (Post 2359112)

Listening to a lot of olympic athletes' back stories, I am struck by the number of athletes who knew by age 9 that is what they were born to do. The high jumper from Louisiana was the best, jumping with a stick by age 5. .

How many non athlete's readers here knew what they wanted to do the rest of their life as a pursuit by the age of 9?

for me I was trying to figure out how to get ready for school on time by the age of 9, never mind see a sport on television or elsewhere and want to do that the rest of my life, or be in the olympics.

anyone have this type of work/sports epiphany?

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy (Post 2359112)

Listening to a lot of olympic athletes' back stories, I am struck by the number of athletes who knew by age 9 that is what they were born to do. The high jumper from Louisiana was the best, jumping with a stick by age 5. .

How many non athlete's readers here knew what they wanted to do the rest of their life as a pursuit by the age of 9?

for me I was trying to figure out how to get ready for school on time by the age of 9, never mind see a sport on television or elsewhere and want to do that the rest of my life, or be in the olympics.

anyone have this type of work/sports epiphany?

Originally Posted by tophcfa (Post 2359125)

When I was a young teenager I was the state champion in backstroke and swam in the nationals (Junior Olympics), and came in third. Despite lots of pressure to continue swimming competitively, I gave it up because my passion was skiing. The first time I pointed my skies down a mogul field I was hooked. Never made it to the Olympics, but I did ski for a couple days with the USA Olympic team while they were training on Outer Limits and Devils Fiddle at Killington and held my own with them. Unfortunately, skiing all those bumps for many years trashed my knees. I should have stuck with swimming. Life goes full circle, now that I am old, and my knees are trashed, swimming is my passion and golf fills in the spare time.

Originally Posted by fdpaq0580 (Post 2359147)

At 7, I wanted to be captain of a clipper ship. Later that same year they discovered I was blind as a bat, almost. My near blindness had left me very shy and with little self confidence. Add to that the teasing for my Coke bottle glasses, my increased insecurity and the lack of clipper ships, I became the dork I am today.
Sometimes I hope for reincarnation. Other times, things could have been much worse. End result, not too bad, really. 🤓🤓🤓

Originally Posted by chrisinva (Post 2359257)

“They were depression era traditionalists.” That says a lot.

Sadly, so were mine. I was good at a few sports but never gave a thought to the possibilities. The message back then was “get an education & get a good job.” Definitely a different era today.

But hey, I had fun back then & immensely enjoyed what an athletic/outdoor life brings. And today, I still have fun in those sports & have even expanded my experiences in TV. Thank you,TV. : )

Originally Posted by macawlaw (Post 2359403)

My daughter was in third grade when she announced that she wanted to be a pediatrician. She started her second year of med school today.

On the way, she had a D1 full ride for volleyball (until she tore her ACL). Her club teams won two national championships, and she attended an invitation only camp at the Olympic Training Center. She did not go “big” for college because she was told she could not major in anything premed, so she chose academics over sports.

So, she knew what she wanted to do early and stuck with it when other opportunities presented themselves.

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy (Post 2359542)

Wow! at age 13, I had figured out how to get to school on time, but writing and literature and history were the worst subjects, kept getting Ds and Fs. . and recess was my favorite class. .

I still can't image being smart or aware enough to make these life determining decisions before the age of 25. . . I admire people who made these decisions such as this for the rest of their lives and were top performers in their careers amongst their peers. .

:eclipsee_gold_cup: to you as well

Originally Posted by Windguy (Post 2359552)

I loved anything to do with rockets when I was little. When I watched John Glenn orbit the Earth in 6th grade I decided I wanted to work for NASA when I grew up. Ten years later, I pulled into the Manned Spacecraft Center (now JSC) in Houston to start my internship as a rocket engineer.

I still love rockets and spend hours every day keeping up with the space industry. I can’t wait for SpaceX to start launching their giant Starship rocket from the cape. Man, I love rockets!

Originally Posted by nn0wheremann (Post 2359653)

No epiphany for me. I have had several career paths, some successful, others less so.
I do have sympathy for those age 9 athletes who become Olympians. Now they are in their teens or twenties, with nowhere to go. Maybe they will figure out round two precociously by the time they are 29.