Do you ever remember hearing the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” when you were a child? Or even if you didn’t, maybe you proudly proclaimed what you thought you were going to do when you reached adulthood. At some point, every kid dreams about what being an adult is going to be like. I used to imagine myself staying up until all hours of the night, watching TV with the lights off and eating popcorn. And then during the day I would go to my job as a nurse. Because apparently sleep is something people cease to need when they get older.

Adulthood threw me many curve balls. I’ve come to realize that sleep is, in fact, one of the most coveted parts of my day. Isn’t it funny how as a child you dream of staying up all night, but as an adult all you can think of is going to bed? The other thing I learned is that my interests would lead me very far away from nursing. The level of compassion is there, but I’ve always been more tech savvy and into mathematics.

As my time in highschool was coming to an end, I found myself struggling with what my next steps in life were going to be. I’ve always been envious of people who truly knew their calling from a young age and worked hard to pursue it. Even to this day I’m still unsure of my career choice. I’ve thought of doing everything from astronomy, to baking, to computer science, and pretty much everything in between. But as a kid I always had a more creative and artistic side. I loved drawing, and so I wanted to somehow incorporate that into my job. So I ended up becoming an AutoCAD drafter.

Officially, I have a college diploma in Geomatics. It’s a very broad and not very well known industry. But it’s also quite fascinating, so take the time to look it up if you have the chance! Within it is land surveying, which is actually one of the oldest professions. I work for a geomatics firm specializing in land surveying. Every day I find myself looking at field returns and drafting a variety of plans for our clients. It’s a demanding job with long hours and tight deadlines, but it’s great!

Whenever I think back to being a kid who wanted to go into nursing, I laugh a little. Not because I don’t like nurses. Believe me, I have mad respect for nurses. The work they do is incredible and difficult on a whole other level. But just because it’s so drastically different from what I ended up doing. I never imagined I’d end up in the industry I’m in. But now I can’t picture myself doing anything else. Recently I’ve made the move to a much more technical role. And I truly love what I do at work every day. Every new project is unique and presents new challenges. And I get the chance to work with a lot of cutting edge technology and software.

What did you want to be when you were a kid? Is it similar to what you do now for a living?