<p>I graduated from college at a very young age, in Feb 1982. At that time, I really don’t have any idea what I want to do in my life nor having any idea what my life would be after 30 years. </p>
<p>One thing for sure, however, I did not envision I will be a citizen of a different country, with two wonderful kids, and driving a car to go to work. </p>
<p>What was your vision of where you would be 30 years after college graduation?</p>
<p>I am much more successful in my professional life than I ever thought I would be. Generally speaking that is due to the fact that my DH hasn’t really worked at a real job in almost 20 years, so I’ve had to become a very serious breadwinner.</p>
<p>Edit to add:</p>
<p>I am living more or less where I thought I would be (suburb of NYC). And I always imagined I’d have daughters but instead I got sons!!</p>
<p>When you just put one foot in front of the other, you wind up arriving somewhere – even if it wasn’t your original destination.</p>
<p>I had no conception of the place I am now. It had not even crossed my mind thirty years ago to leave my home area, but I am 1500 miles away, having lived in a few other places along the way</p>
<p>Business surprises took us down different paths. Mainly, I had no clue how amazingly wonderful being a parent would be, no idea that I would genuinely want to sacrifice my wants to pursue the best possible education for my kids, no dream, even that they would all have become the amazing people they now are. Even being mushy in love 30 years ago, I could not have imagined the depth of love one feels as a parent.</p>
<p>Hmm, 30 years ago I was 18, so just leaving for college. I had no idea at that time. But by the time I graduated from college, I had an idea of what profession and even what company I wanted to work for. Am still in the profession, and was employed for a long time by that company (although I did not gain employment with them until about 5 years after I graduated). The one surprising this is that I started my own company in the same business about 10 years ago, and have been very successful. I would have been WAY too chicken to even consider that when I graduated from college.</p>
<p>I also knew where I was moving after college, and still live in that city. That is a bit of a surprise, I only moved here because my bf (later husband, now ex-h) lived here. Still think I will retire someplace else, though. :)</p>
<p>Agree with somemom, if there is one thing I had no idea about, it was just how amazing it is to be a parent, and how fiercely and completely I love my kids.</p>
<p>Yes. (10 char)</p>
<p>I had very simple aspirations 30 years ago and have attained everything I have ever asked or seeked. Graduated college in 4 years, worked as an RN for 30 years, married the love of my life, have a wonderful daughter, live in my own home. I wish I had done some things differently b
ut at the same time, I have had some tragedy and saddness to tamper the joys. So yes, I am ok where I am at right now, but bittersweet about what I have lost along the way.</p>
<p>30 years ago, I was just turned 22 and finishing my first year of law school. I was a few months away from meeting my husband.</p>
<p>At that time, I thought I’d have a brilliant legal career, trying tough cases and possibly becoming a judge.</p>
<p>Then I had my first child and went on to have 5 total. 30 years ago, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to have children - career woman sounded really good for awhile.</p>
<p>I still work as a trial attorney but motherhood took away any interest in being a judge; I just realized I didn’t want to be the one responsible for solving problems all the time. </p>
<p>There are things I wish I’d done differently but overall, I’m happy.</p>
<p>Thirty years ago … I was single, out of college, living in the midwest, and (July 1981) madly in love with a young Brit. </p>
<p>I would not have imagined that in 2011 that I would be married to someone else for 27 years, living in a different part of the country, owning my own business, with two (count them 2) sons who attended the same Ivy League school. If I think back to where I was, it would have been total pie in the sky.</p>
<p>Nope. My kids can’t believe this, but I was under the impression 30 years ago that I was attending college to become educated, but that I would ultimately marry and raise children and be a stay-at-home wife and mom, and would never have to actually work to support myself. That’s truly what I thought at the time.</p>
<p>Fast forward 30 years - I did get married and I did have children but spouse has had periods of unemployment and I have been the primary breadwinner for the last 12 years. </p>
<p>But just because it is different than I expected doesn’t mean it’s bad - I like my job, I’m still married (he’s the one who stayed home with the kids and did housework), and my children are people I like and respect and find interesting.</p>
<p>In the '80s, I was part of an MIT alumnae group that visited high schools to encourage young people to take more science and math because it opened so many doors later. Statistics then showed that only 20% of people stayed in the same career (much less the same job) for their entire working career. I knew then that I would be moving around my whole life. </p>
<p>1981… 6 years out of college, age 26, divorced and on a fast track for computer marketing management (my second career, I’d already given up the first one, in biology). Looking for love in all the right places and all the wrong ones, too. I moved to a startup in 1982–partly for the excitement and partly because the founders were in their 20s and I thought it’d be fun to work there. It was! </p>
<p>In the early '90s, with two young children (I married one of those founders), I left computers to teach high school. Did that for ten years. That was career number 3. Then left that. Now we sell bicycles (number four). And I do dog training on the side (number 5?). </p>
<p>I wasn’t really expecting to enjoy parenting as much as I do, though.</p>
<p>Yes, more or less . I wanted to have kids ,maybe do some teaching ,be mostly an at home mom .I got a Masters in Ed. , had 4 kids , and have mostly been a mom . Only thing I hadn’t imagined was leaving Ca and moving to east coast , where I have been for 24 years ! I go back to Ca every 4 months to visit my 91 year old mom and see 2 siblings . Have never met anybody who left SF to move to east coast !</p>
<p>Thirty years ago, I had just finished my freshman year of college and was madly in love with a just graduated engineer who had a job four hours away. So in the summer of 1981 I mostly dreamed of finishing nursing school and marrying my engineer and having cute kids. I had no huge aspirations career wise, just wanted a happy life with someone I loved.</p>
<p>One year later I did marry the engineer, transferred colleges and finished nursing sch., worked in a hospital for awhile and then quit to be a sahm with two cute boys. Have lived in the same area since the day we were married. Haven’t worked as a nurse in more than twenty years. I teach preschool now which I never would have thought of thirty years ago.</p>
<p>There have been some bumps in the road. Raising two sons was sometimes easier and a lot of times harder than I imagined it would be thirty years ago ( who really knows anything at nineteen?) but it has been a joy. For the most part my life has turned out as I imagined/hoped it would.</p>
<p>Never thought I would live overseas, in fact, I barely entertained the idea of moving away from my home state. We are in our sixteenth year as expats living in Asia…</p>
<p>Otherwise, I thought I’d be in a lot better shape then I am now. Somehow I stopped running and scuba diving when I was pregnant and never took them up again after the kids were born.</p>
<p>Then … I lived in the NYC area in a small apartment and thought I always would be NYC-based
Now … I live in suburban Philly on an acre of land with a small condo in CT</p>
<p>Then … I was a career woman
Now … I am mostly retired, with occasional part-time work</p>
<p>Then … I had been underweight for most of my life
Now … I have been overweight for most of my lilfe</p>
<p>Then … I was perfectly healthy and took it for granted
Now … I have survived aggressive breast cancer and congestive heart failure and am daily grateful for my regifts of life and current good health</p>
<p>Then … I was child-free and considering staying that way
Now … I am the parent of two wonderful young adults and take great pleasure in them</p>
<p>Then … I thought the best parts of life ended in the 30s
Now … I think the best parts of life start in the 60s</p>
<p>30 years ago?
wow- I had just gotten married but I was very young & had no clear idea of the future.
I also had just had a late miscarriage and so was recovering physically & emotionally from that.
We are still married, much happier than our rushed beginning would have indicated, & have lived in the same house for 28 years, have two beautiful & bright daughters who are 29 & 21 & feel we have been blessed with a good life.</p>
<p>Not looking for sympathy but someone has too speak for the rest of us: I never expected that my husband would betray me and I would end up alone. And I never expected that the salary for the niche work that allowed me to have time to devote to my family would fail to keep up with the cost of living. I do not have a bad life but I never anticipated that this is where I would be at this point in my life.</p>
<p>30 years ago I was five so no :P</p>
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<p>This is me. Family-wise, I pretty much have what I want - two reasonably successful, decently-behaved kids and a marriage that isn’t perfect, but has lasted almost 22 years so far. </p>
<p>Professionally, I haven’t worked since June 2010. I’m almost 50 and have yet to figure out what I want to do when I grow up, and feel like I’m too old to start over. My bachelor’s degree is in journalism and my master’s is in sociology, and at this point all I want is something that pays decent, doesn’t make me want to throw up on a daily basis, and I can stay in until I’m 67 and qualify for full Social Security benefits. I don’t know if I’m ever going to find it, though.</p>
<p>^^^I’m looking for that job, too. After 23 years of self employment, I’m ready to go back to a regular job that I can leave at the office at five o’clock. And I want to retire at 67 and collect Social Security. I don’t care how little the job pays. I’m tired of working every night and every weekend during the busy times, and wondering if I’ll be able to pay my bills during the slow times. </p>
<p>30 years ago, I was finishing up my last course in summer session so I could get my degree in biology in three years. I finally gave up on my dream of becoming a marine biologist, as tuition had gone up and I would not be able to afford a fourth year in college. I was engaged to marry a man I met during my Christmas break, a coworker of my sister. To me, he was a great catch. He was two years older than me and had a JOB! I was set for life. I could work as a teacher and we’d live comfortably. Little did I know that shortly after our marriage, there would be an oil bust, and we’d both be unemployed. And I never, ever, ever thought I would be a mom. We never intended to have children. But that biological alarm went off when my husband hit 30, so here we are.</p>
<p>Happily, husband got out of the oil field, and is doing well with his career. I am wishing I had stuck with teaching, as I’d be retiring with a pension soon. And although I did not become a marine biologist, I still have my love of nature and am an avid birdwatcher, something I learned to love during my biology studies in college. </p>
<p>I always tell my son, no knowledge is wasted. No matter what your degree is in, and whether you actually get a job related to your degree, you did not waste your time and money getting your education. It will always be a part of you, and you had experiences and met people you never would have met had you not gone to that school.</p>
<p>Now I’m 10 years away from the age of my daddy when he died, and I fully expect to have his life expectancy. I’m determined to do as much living as I can in these next 10 years, see all the places I never could afford to go to, even if it’s only vicariously through my CC friends. And I pray every day that I can live long enough to see my son graduate college and, God willing, the birth of my first grandchild.</p>
<p>If I had to answer this question as of five years ago, I would say I was exactly where I hoped and expected to be–happily married, working as a lawyer, two kids in elementary school and a nice middle class life.<br>
Flash forward to today and my life over the last five years has taken a completely bizarre new path that I NEVER would have anticipated but love. In 2006 DH was transferred and we moved from the Midwest to California. I decided to stay home for a year or so to get the kids settled in and then take the Cal bar and go back to work. Turned 40 that year and the doctor said it was “very unlikely” that I would get pregnant at my age so–unless pregnancy would be a disaster–we did not need “protection” any more. Here I am four years later happily still at home with a toddler as well as a high school freshman and senior.<br>
I definitely would never have seen myself as a stay-at-home mom 30 years ago, heck I would not have seen myself in that role 5 years ago! I took great pride in contributing to the family income and great pride in my career. I really don’t miss it, though. But, would I have imagined at 15 that I would be in the position I am in now? Never!</p>