Commercial Pilot

Even went so far to enroll at Embry Riddle. The money time and desire were all there. This was 40 years ago when I was still a teen. The program I was enrolling in would have taken me all the way from off the street to 737 type rating plus CFI and CFII. That was not all the same program, but multiple. A friend of my dad had contacts with several FBO’s and various FAR 135 operators and promised that he’d find a place for me.

It all came crashing down (puns are always intentional) when I couldn’t pass the eye exam. I’m legally blind in my right eye. I was originally told that’s not an issue since my color vision is perfect… Well it was a problem. I looked outside the United States and I could have achieved my dream. However my controlling mother said if I went outside the country then there would be no money. She went so far to take all of my documents to her safety deposit box so I couldn’t even get a passport or visa. She never did give me my original SSN card or birth certificate… When I had moved out of their house I went and acquired copies.

I did make it into the air, but as a skydiver and not a pilot.

I’d love to get paid enough to live comfortably while building custom desktop PCs for people.

If it helps you at all, I believe in learning on the job.

I didn’t know much about money or finance so I got a job as a teller, moved up until I felt I knew what I was doing.

In a similar vein as you, I knew nothing of tools and working with your hands, so I became a mechanic, then a maintenance worker.

And now I’m looking for an IT job. I never went to college but since highschool I’ve never stopped learning. And BTW I sucked at both fields when I started, but 2 years in you’ll figure it out. 5 years in you might be ready for your dream career, or moving on like me.

To answer the question though I’d love to go to Mars! I think I’d be the kind of person who’d be good at being among the first. But I don’t think I’d be able to permanently say goodbye to the creature comforts of Earth. Especially pets.

Gas station attendant - Did this for a while and loved it. I was left to my own devices, no one to hassle me about how I did the job, and I got to meet strange and interesting folk. I was once referred to a “gas station guru” by a regular because I’d listen to their woes and give timely if unexpected advice for dealing with an absurd range of things. ADHD and self sufficiency make you pretty good at a lot of small tasks.

Bowling alley attendent - that’s just gas station attendant but in an inherently fun and strange environment.

Card shop owner - probably the only place where you’re going to look more appropriate gaming on the clock than not, but actually I like the idea of offering a safe space for people with similar hobbies to me.

Appliance repair and modifications - make a living jailbreaking peoples refrigerators and fixing washing machines? Literally heaven.

Alas, none of these really pay enough to live on or actually exist in the later most case.

Pretty much the same as you. I love designing and creating things; both on an individual and larger scale, managing stuff as well, but i am also neurodivergent and was not really able to complete a degree at the university. At this point in my life (mid thirties) it is sadly very unlikely for me to ever get into an occupation or role where i could actually do something in that vein.

I simply do not dream of labor.

closest i would get to dream labor is labor on a homestead, taking care of animals and such

Space station architect

Being a good looking movie star would not be wrong. :)

Tom Cruise is living the life I want.

I have an engineer’s heart but not an engineer’s brain. I can fix just about anything and I love thinking about how things work. I work best when I’m solving problems.

But I HATE math. My brain immediately checks out, and it was the only subject I struggled with in school. Academically, I’ve always just clicked more with history and language. I just knew I could never be an engineer because of the amount of math and physics required for an engineering degree. I ended up going for a teaching degree and now I work in museum education.

I would have loved to be a programmer circa 2005-2020 but I got fucked by a rare disease that prevented any career aspirations

I wanted to do too many things, and still do, so I can’t answer this succinctly but…

OP, in your case, it’s never too late to get into what you want to do. Obviously it gets harder the more locked in your life becomes but you’d be surprised at what becomes available once you start.

Case in point, I was an automotive mechanic for a number of years. I didn’t start that career until I was already in my very late 30s. It was something I found interesting and always wanted to try so I gave it a shot. I had no prior trade work (I was a chef/cook prior to that) and my only experience was keeping my old junker running.

It put me on a great path that changed my life substantially for the better. Later I transitioned into something higher paying and easier.

When I was kid I absolutely fell in love with the game Endless Ocean for the wii. I really wanted to be a marine biologist or just do something where my job would be to spend tons of time out in the sea and diving.

I still wish I could. I live by the ocean and absolutely love fish and the sea. Getting on a boat and going out until land is super distant or out of sight is an absolutely magical experience. You really feel how big the world is. Maybe one day I can have the fund for scuba gear and do some underwater photography out there, but I doubt it.

I’d love to be a philosopher, but the only job you can really get is teaching philosophy. Which is more of a teacher job and not really a philosophy job ironically enough.

I work in a metal fabrication shop so I’m usually tired when I get home most days so it would be hard to try and start a YouTube channel or something, and I’m not charismatic enough to just talk openly to a camera and have people watch.

I still read up on old thinkers, i just don’t get money for it. Kierkegaard is an older one i like. Idk if Alan Watts is considered one but he’s my favorite modern “thinker”, he gave me the most beautiful idea I’ve ever encountered so he’ll always be in my top 3.

Occultism/Natural Law/Hermeticism also have some interesting ideas.

Have to wade thru a lot of shit tho, especially in older books. My favorite was someone legitimately believing if you boiled piss for 5 years it would turn into the philosophers stone lolol. And if the temperature changes even 1° at any point in the 5 years you have to start over. And that’s why philosopher stones don’t exist anymore. I think the alchemists would say he had the “gold fever” as alchemy was more about turning a person as worthless as lead, into someone as valuable as gold. And there’s a clue to finding the actual “philosophers stone” in its name.

My real dream job would be not needing to have a job

Game developer of some kind. In my wildest dreams I’m the Stardew Valley guy.

I’ve tried to pursue it a few times but I’m not strong-willed enough to overcome the admittedly minor obstacles. I got shafted in school for IT class. Had 100% on the exam but the teacher was a huge bitch and wouldnt take my coursework so I only got a C. Which meant college wouldnt take me for game dev course and I had to do a baby-mode IT course where they made us learn google (seriously, 2 months of learning how to use AND and shit in google) and photoshop. By the time the class moved onto hardware and programming languages the teacher wouldnt let me participate because I didnt finish the photoshop course.

Decided to just try it alone and managed to scrape together an almost functional prototype after a few weeks. Then found out I’d selected the wrong option incredibly early in the process which meant I had to start all over again. Asked for advice online and instead of advice or information on what else to look out for just received shitload of people telling eachother what an idiot OP is and how people like that shouldn’t even try when they don’t even understand whatever that was. I’m too thin skinned to deal with it so I just gave up.

When AI started taking off a few years back I got a little excited, thinking it could be time to try again now that I can ask computer-daddy to help. Before I’ve even got round to seeing if its feasible, you know, take a look around.