What Do You Want To Be…

When You Grow Up?

When you are of a certain young age, the question comes out…parents start to know what your hopes and aspirations are for the future…and often try to imprint their views on what that may be.

I come from a military family, my grandad fought in WW1 and WW2 and my dad served in the Army for 23 years also encountering several global skirmishes.

Inevitably there was an expectation that I would follow in the family trend and join up or go to university and snag a “golden ticket” to a high-flying career…

Now, to say I was a difficult child…hmmm…possibly an understatement, but even at 13 years I had my own ideas and none of them matched my parents’ dreams.

My first goal was, in an age where Space was the frontier just being challenged, to be an astronaut. When I found out you needed to be deeply engaged in the Science world…well that was never my thing.

Next came, farming…oh yes, I could see myself out there tending animals, harvesting corn…being with nature as it were…but then I found that farming was long hours, day and night. That dream faded.

What was next on the “menu”…well, literally, that, cooking, being a chef. I enjoyed cooking, it was part of the household regime at an early age. We all played our part in prepping and…