I chose "pilot," because it's the road not taken. As a little girl, I wanted to be an astronaut, not as farfetched as it sounds, as my father quite literally was a NASA rocket scientist. Like a lot of girls, I had trouble with math around the age of 13, more to do with a succession of bad teachers than lack of aptitude--but it was the first time that something didn't come easily to me, and I had not developed the coping skills to deal with it.
Even so, I made it through high school with decent enough grades that a lot of colleges were very keen, and I got an offer to go to UCLA on an NROTC scholarship. I brushed off the recruiter as soon as he told me there were no female fighter pilots, and never let him finish telling me that by the time I finished all my schooling, the policies would probably have changed, and with my engineering degree in hand, I would be in pole position to have a crack at one of the first slots to open to women.
Moron!
This is case scenario of course, but we're talking a dream job, right? Catapulting off the flight deck and into the wild blue yonder and all that. Who wouldn't?
