I’ve been thinking about this lately. I wanted to be a doctor, but my family broke apart in my teens, which affected my mental health and, subsequently, my studies. I worked in construction and as a driver on the side for a bit before replacing the former with work as a personal trainer. Now I work as a bodyguard for a rich kid, which is de facto more of a surveillance, driving, and companionship role than a security one, since his dad has hardcore professionals for times when security is really needed. I didn’t expect my life to turn out this way, to be honest.
As a kid i was obsessed with space, i remember sitting hours infront of the computer just watching space flights, i watched every apollo launch, mercury launch, every space shuttle launch (except the ones that blew up), so so much on hubble. I had books lining my shelves explaining the universe, about black holes and stars and how we would conquer them. I loved space. and still do, i wanted to do any job even remotely close to it. NASA was my dream workplace, neil armstrong was my hero.
Now i do programming and play ksp. Close enough.