What do you want to be when you grow up? The most popular question adults and peers ask you anywhere from age five, all the way up until you are graduating highschool. We decided to put this question to the test and get to know the students and teachers at Magnet a little better through them. If you didn’t have an answer we probably asked you what you used to want to be or what your answer was when you were little, and safe to say we had a wide variety of answers. From chefs to doctors, bioengineers to actresses, and spies to studying sharks, the students of Academic Magnet definitely have some high and far reaching interests! Let’s find out a little bit more!
ENTERTAINMENT:
Teachers and students alike share their childhood excitement about the entertainment industry. Keaton Murray stated that he wanted to help make movies in the future when he was five years old because he “likes storytelling,” but unfortunately it seems this dream has fizzled out so we will never get to see what might have been. On the other hand, student Elizabeth Hample still retains her thought of being in a “behind the scenes role” in the entertainment industry – a good way to get rich and get to experience the life of the famous without necessarily living it. This certainly sounds like a very promising career so let’s look out for her on the red carpet!! Alongside her will be exchange student Giorgia Pingitore who’s wanted to be an actress since middle school. The thought of going up on stage and “having a new life”, almost immersing yourself into a new world, definitely sounds like it could be a super cool experience.
Another thing she mentioned was that it would allow her to interact with people all around the world which we think would be so awesome to form all of those connections! Plus travel is always super fun!! Our very own Mrs. Hurt says that, in addition to being in the peace corps and raising dogs, in her childhood she also had big dreams of becoming a rockstar!!! It’s never too late in our opinion! We could see you rocking it up on stage! Bennet McKnight shares her love of music and said circa 10 years old he wanted to be a musician. This was an interesting path for him because you can get rich but it’s not too stressful and you get to spend time doing something you love, but now he’s not sure about what to pursue in the future. Last but definitely not least out of our entertainment inclined group: Mrs. Grayson. When she was in 3rd grade before she ever became a teacher, she wanted to be a talk show host! The Today Show in particular would have been perfect! Even though it’s sad this never came true, it’s good in a way because now she gets to teach all of us!!
ECONOMICS + BUSINESS:
Not surprisingly, we received a ton of answers about being some sort of finance bro or businessman. Majority of the responses seemed to revolve around making money, but Ian Williams says his interest in working as a day trader in finance extends beyond that- he wants to follow in his dad’s footsteps because he also works in finance. He’s wanted to do this for about 4-5 years and we think this is a great idea for him! Sawyer Quatermous, co-president of Academic Magnet’s investment club, looks to own his own investment company in the future! Planning to major in finance, this is something that we can see working out well especially because he already has his finance club and established interests early on in high school. Jack Troy says he’d like to work in wealth management…but unfortunately did not elaborate any further so we’ll have to check back in later to see where he ends up! Even though he’s younger than Jack, Daniel Huang’s plan to become a successful entrepreneur and businessman was realized early on in high school! He wants to “get money,” so good luck with that! I hope you guys are equally as good at handling money as you are dreaming about making it!
DOCTOR:
The largest group of similar responses we gathered: doctors. Senior Sophia Benich expressed her early interest in medicine looking up to her father, and plans to continue it in the future because she likes to help people and problem solve! This is very sweet and we’re sure she will go on to do great things for everyone around her! Also following in his family’s footsteps is Emilio Roxas-Peirano. His father and grandfather’s legacy of working in medicine have inspired him to pursue that career as well…but with a major in business just in case! This is a smart plan because he will get to have a foundation in business and then do medical prerequisites and continue onto medical school! A couple of people have specific areas of study they’re interested in also! Quinn Enright’s goal to go into dentistry stems from her belief that everyone is beautiful and “it starts with a smile.” Awww! Eliza Thorn also wants to help people put smiles on their faces as she pursues a career as a therapist! She’s always loved talking to people and helping everyone through their struggles and I think she would be so great for this profession.
Going back to the more anatomical side of the medical industry we have Alexis Flores Bordallo with an early passion inspired by McDreamy and Roblox hospital games. As a current student in anatomy, he’s gone from playing obbys on Roblox and chilling watching Greys Anatomy to the real thing!! Last but definitely not least out of our medically inclined students we interviewed is Hanna Ismail. Her goal to become a pathologist, which I figured out was a person who studies fluids, tissues, or organs taken from the body after a quick google search. She’s interested in this because she can work from the hospital and from home, but just recently honed in on becoming a pathologist. Whether you’re going to be a physical or mental doctor, I’m sure all of these students will go on to do great things!
LAWYER:
To our surprise, there were only three students that answered saying they would like to be a lawyer when they are older. In all these cases the students also knew what time of law they wanted to study which shows the level of research and thought they had given into their future. Starting off with Randy Villariza he said he would like to be a corporate lawyer. This type of law typically involves working with clients to help manage and design frameworks for their company and operations. The only reasoning he really provided us with was that he was “into law and money” and said he has been interested in doing this since freshman year. Moving on we have Alden Evans who jumped to answer the question to respond she wants to be a patent lawyer. She thinks the idea of studying law is intriguing because she thinks “it’s really interesting to protect people’s ideas and I have always wanted to be a lawyer.” However, when we specifically asked her what age she was when she knew she wanted to be a lawyer she responded “fourteen years old.”
Slightly contradictory but this just goes to show she took her dream and is committing it for her future. Finally our last responder who said they wanted to be a lawyer and third senior, Lillian Osbon, would like to be a lawyer specializing in criminal law. She explained that she has wanted to do this on and off since around eight grade, but she knew “summer of junior year when i did an internship at the courthouse.” Lillian said it was a very eye-opening experience and really sealed the deal for her. I wish all of these students the best, especially because I know it is a difficult journey to becoming a successful lawyer, but knowing these students, I’m sure they will be the best around!
SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY:
To our surprise, there were also only a couple of students that answered they wanted to be in a science or technology field when they are older. Andy Wong says he wants to be an aeronautical space engineer. After doing some research we learned what an aeronautical space engineer was: designing aircraft and propulsion systems and studying the aerodynamic performance of aircraft and construction materials. He says he has “wanted to be this for two years because I work a lot to make businesses.” This seems like a very difficult job so best of luck to you Andy! Next up we have Robert Heindrich who said he has wanted to be a “bioengineer since seventh grade because it can directly help people and prevent untimely deaths.” This is a very admirable reason to become an engineer and we hope you are able to make a difference in other people’s lives. Last but not least, Talia Barsness explained to us that she wanted to be an IT specialist, information technology specialist for a long time because it’s lucrative. She also said that she “knew at the beginning of highschool that I wanted to do something computer science related” and at the beginning of this year she looked more into and decided on IT specialist.
OTHER:
Our last category consists of a bunch of different responses that didn’t quite fit into a distinct category like law, medicine, science, entertainment, or business. Starting off with the teachers, Mr. Garris said that being an actor sounded fun but he knew he wanted to be a professor from a pretty young age. While this is what he originally started off doing he explained it was ultimately “the attraction of teaching higher level material to students.” He says “I realized that I could do that as a highschool teacher without having to balance the research part of being a professor.” It is safe to say we are glad Mr. Garris had this realization and was able to create such a lasting impact on our Magnet community. Moving on to Sra. Colón who said she has wanted to be an archeologist when she was 8 or so years old. She explained that she “wanted to dig and find pyramids and be in the sun” and that she used to watch tv shows and find it so interesting. Finally, our last teacher, Dr. Altman said she wanted to be a spy when she was little.
She found it intriguing because “it seemed adventurous, dangerous, and meant that I could travel around the world.” Although we know her as our beloved French teacher, this leads us to wonder if she has been living a double life all these years… Now onto the students. First up Logan Kane-Eames told us he had wanted to be a chef, because his dad was one and he grew up loving the kitchen. He said he is not sure what he wants to be now but that’s what he wanted when he was probably five. Eli Sherman said when he was little he would tell people he wanted to study sharks. When we asked him to elaborate he just said “because they were my favorite animal.” Of course we had to ask him his favorite type of shark and since we know everyone is wondering, it’s a bull shark. When we asked senior Chloe Trowman about what she wanted to be in the future, she thought for a second before saying, President of the United States of America. WOW! She told us she had been thinking about this aspiration since around 5th grade and had calculated the year she could run: 2048. She says this is a dream of hers because “there has not been a woman president yet.” We hope you can make the change!
After getting to know the students roaming the hallways a little better it’s safe to say that all of these aspirations for the future were super unique and fun to hear about. We also want to share that it is one hundred percent okay to not know what you want to be. I know we don’t! While it’s good to have dreams now, there is always something right around the corner that will spark your interests!
