Whether you wanted to be a princess, an astronaut, or a bartender, most of us had an idea of what we wanted to be when we grew up. The same goes for the teachers at Mendocino High and Community School. I interviewed them, asking what they wanted to be when they grew up when they were in middle school and high school with mixed results, some  surprising, some predictable

Marshall Brown, the Media and Production teacher, had a few ideas of his dream job. One of his plans was being an airline pilot because of his love of planes, along with growing up near an airport. These plans were dashed by the realization that to have a plane, and to fly, one must have lots and lots of extra money. His other dream job was to be a jazz musician, but to do that, he would have had to spend 4+ hours every day practicing, a commitment he was not too interested in making. 

James Eastman, the English teacher at the Community School, first wanted to be a Marine Biologist until he realized that, to do that, a lot of math was required, which he was not too interested in. Later, he liked the idea of being an Art History professor, basically a teacher, but realized he wasn’t super interested in writing essays that no one would read for the rest of his life, so he decided to teach high school English.  And, as in character for our ocean-loving teacher, he also always wanted to be a professional surfer. 

The high school English teacher, Samuel Stump, didn’t think about it a lot as a kid. He didn’t really know, but Stump wishes he would have put more thought into it when he was younger, even though it ended up working out for him. His sophomore year of college, he decided on being a teacher. He is now five years in and loves his job. He’d also think being a baseball broadcaster would be fun. 

Derek Hutchinson always wanted to be a teacher, partly because his mom was a teacher, but also considered going into environmental activism, or law school. He wasn’t sure what kind of teacher he wanted to be, so he stayed mainly in politics during college. 

Marci Arter, a staple to the Mendocino High School office, as a kid, wanted to be an operating room technician, and clean up the mess after the operation, saying it fascinated her. As she got older, she wanted to be a criminal psychologist (before the criminal minds hype), because she wanted to find the reasons behind people’s actions.

Our art teacher, Erik Rain, wanted to be an astronaut when he was a kid. In high school, he didn’t have a ‘dream job’; he just wanted to be rich. This plan pretty clearly worked out. 

Caroline, the culinary teacher, wanted to be a chef since the age of three. It kind of worked out for her, as she now gets to be a chef to a bunch of whiny high schoolers. 

Although most of our teachers aren’t what they wanted to be when they were kids, the majority said they were still happy with what they were doing, and (for the most part), wouldn’t change a thing.