In the malaysian blog scene, a lot of bloggers have posted about the search for the 1st malaysian astronaut. Dinesh made a sneer in his post; "Sign up for the malaysian astronaut programme: Datukship included with light saber!" Suresh, Najah, hafizismail and auyongtc signed up immediately... not for the Datukship of course ;)
Sharizal then highlighted a few blogs doubting the initiative.
Najah's next post was some what of a flash back to me. Teachers do ask students about their ambitions and what do they want to be when they grow up. I think its in their manual somewhere.
Najah's primary teacher was somewhat pessimistic about her ambition to be either an astronaut or a prime minister or an economist. You cant blame her teacher. during those days, malaysia was still an agricultural nation. We are not exposed to information available. Heck, we only had RTM1, RTM2/TV Pendidikan. Even then transmission starts only at 5pm and ends at 12am. Space travel is something bizzare and out of this world. Its hard to be a jedi.
As for her teacher not having faith in her becoming prime minister, again she's being pessimistic about things. But you can't simply put the entire blame blame her, perhaps she doesn't like Margaret Tatcher, who was british PM during those days. Heck, even Uncle Sam dont have a female head of state (yet). But who knows 20-30 years down the road, we might have a female PM?
I remember i was seven years old when my teacher asked me what i want to be when i grow up. My answer:
a) A policeman/detective (thanks to starsky & hutch, Kojak, rockford files and tj hooker)
b) A soldier (thanks to Combat and M*A*S*H)
c) A fireman (now, why on earth would i wanna do that?)
I told my uncle about it, he laugh and asked me, "a fireman? how are you going to put out the fire? peeing on it?" hahaha...
At that time i had no idea what working world is about apart from what i saw on tv. I know architects design buildings, doctors cure sick people, teachers teach students thats about it. My father, who noticed my liking to drawing suggested me to pursue architecture or engineering. I was not interested in designing buildings or build buildings. I don't even know what engineers do.
One year later another teacher asked me what i want to be. I gave the same answer except my third choice, i want to be like my dad. the teacher asked me what was my dad's occupation. After a long thought i answered bluntly, "i dont know, he sits at his desk in his office and sign papers". At that time my dad was the GM of a local government development corporation.
As time pass, I have contemplated a lot on my future career. In my early teens, astronaut was one option. (i had lots of books on space travel) Archeologist/Paleontologist is another (I had lots of books on dinosaurs and ancient civilizations). At one point i want to be a geologist so i can study volcanoes (volcanologist is more appropriate but at that time i dont know what they call people who study volcanoes)
I wanted to be a chef in an exclusive restaurant. Then I wanted to become an airline pilot. This one sticks for a while. I even managed to get an interview with Malaysia Airlines when i was 18. I didn't pass the test. To pacify the lust for flying, i even applied for a course in Aeronautical/aerospace Engineering. I was offered Computer Science instead.
Regret? Not really... there are a lot of options to go by in the IT field. I still yearn to fly. Not quite to orbit, but 30,000ft would be just nice. Maybe when I'm rich enough I might get myself a Private Pilot License (PPL).
Perhaps i should have listened to my dad's suggestion and be an architect.
As for the Astronaut program, i haven't sign up yet. I still have until December 31st to think about jumping in a space cadet suit.
My childhood ambitions were scientist(read a lot of science related books) and engineer. I end up study computer engineering and work as programmer now. :)
Posted by: LcF | Wednesday, October 15, 2003 at 12:11
:)
When I was small, I wanted to be a garbage collector. So I could hang out of the truck. I still think it's uber cool
God dammit, I miss the days of the pink minibuses
Posted by: Suresh Gnasegarah | Wednesday, October 15, 2003 at 12:46
my younger bro wanted to be a fireman, he recalls liking the uniform and riding
into town on a red truck with sirens seemed like a fun thing to do! :)
Posted by: Sharizal Shaarani | Wednesday, October 15, 2003 at 18:10
Come to think of it, yeah it is kinda fun riding in a red truck with sirens on. Weeeeeeeeoooooo.... weeeeeoooooo!!!
Make waaaaayyyy for the fire truck!!
Oh yeah, now i remember why i wanna be a fireman... The sliding down the pole bit is ultra cool...!
Come to think of it... the uniform and the pole... that's kinda kinky too... ;)
Posted by: KaZ | Thursday, October 16, 2003 at 00:26