What did you want to be?

[ceyko]

What's the real deal with SWAT? I remember growing up near a local guy who was SWAT and he trained hard. We'd see him running for hours. Everything I read indicated it was elite for the police forces at least. However, I see videos of people with jackets that say SWAT doing raids and they look like Navy boot camp washouts.

[JP135]

What's the real deal with SWAT? I remember growing up near a local guy who was SWAT and he trained hard. We'd see him running for hours. Everything I read indicated it was elite for the police forces at least. However, I see videos of people with jackets that say SWAT doing raids and they look like Navy boot camp washouts.

I can't speak for anyplace else, but we trained pretty hard. We had minimum physical standards and were tested every quarter - basically like doing the pre-employment physical agility test all over again four times a year. Fail the test and you're on probation. Fail again, you're gone from SWAT. Same thing with qualifying at the range, we were required to shoot 90% or better regardless what the rest of the department did. Qualify less than 90% once you're on probation. Fail to make 90% a second time you're gone. We also had to do a psychological evaluation before coming on the team and after any "critical incident" (PC-speak for shooting somebody). We didn't have any Navy boot camp washouts.

[ZYouL8R]

Air Force pilot.

[momo]

international house pancake.

[Cannon88]

Archaeologist

[Tyrone Biggums]

But then the allure and jet setter lifestyle of being a parts store manager called to me and I knew what my destiny was.

This!!!!

[black2002ls]

When I was a kid I wanted to be an architect. As I got older, that turned into a love of mechanical things and how they worked. When I graduated HS I wanted to end up doing mechanical engineering. Due to a lack of study habits and a small graduating HS class, I was outside of the top 10%, family wasn't set enough to send me to a big school so I stayed around home and got a Physics degree. Would still love to end up in engineering. I could have my industrial engineering and mathematics degree in about a year and a half...for now, I'm content making caking

[Chas_svo]

Fighter Pilot, but determined early that the military was not for me.
Aerospace Engineer/Astronaut - shuttle blew up my freshman year.
Took a Meyers-Briggs test while managing a parts store paying off a divorce, and it said I'd make a good FBI agent or a software engineer. HRT sounded interesting, but the pay sucked, so here I am as a software engineer. Good company (mostly), good pay (mostly, good bonuses, and a semi-normal work week with little travel.

So far, so good.

I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up, and I'm 44.

[01yz2nv]

international house pancake.

Well played

[slow99]

At a very young age - fighter pilot or a cop. I figured out I loved Economics and Finance around 12 years old.

[Gear_Jammer]

I wanted to be a rock guitar legend from the age of about 6 or 7, and quite frankly, I still do. A good buddy of mine is in a very well known band and I get jealous every time he tells me about cool stuff that happens at shows, all the stars he's met, etc.

[TX_92_Notch]

architect

Ditto. I spent countless hours playing with LEGO's as a kid and knew I wanted to be an architect at a young age. Started taking drafting classes (hand drawing) in the 6th grade and never looked back.

<-- living his dream and pretty certain it only gets better from here on out!

[krazy kris]

play in the NFL, race car driver,pro fisherman