When I grow up I want to be...

I remember when I was a young 18 years old, sat in college filling in those bloody UCAS personal statement forms for university applications; hours and hours I wasted trying to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life - that is a question that was just way too big to comprehend! I have luckily fell into a career that I love and am good at - but if I'm perfectly honest, it really was fluke.

I had various ideas what I wanted to do "when I grew up"...

Vet

I love animals, they're cute, they make good companions and so I decided I was going to be a vet and save the animal world one bunny at a time...I started to research into it (well as much as a ten year old could or knew how to) eventually I decided as I was vegetarian I really really wouldn't be able to cut open Rex the dog and play with his intestines to make him better...it was just way too gross! OK, OK, I wasn't going to eat Rex's intestines but the whole touching "meat" just wasn't going to work..I'm also really squeamish which wouldn't have helped, so unless my veterinary practice could involve me just meeting the pets, stroking them a little and sending them on their way...the dream was just that.

Chef

I don't even know how this idea came about, for those of you who know me, I am the laziest when it comes to food. Back in the day I guess I had a little more time on my hands and quite enjoyed making something from scratch...I would try new ingredients, listen hard in home economics, make all sorts of creations, but then...crap...I hit another obstacle! I was at a family friends house (they were both in the catering industry) and they told me that I would probably struggle being vegetarian and a chef as I wouldn't be able to taste the sauces and meats that I would be expected to prepare - vegetarian speciality chefs were few and far between (I think they still are) and so once again I was back to the drawing board.

Primary School Teacher

Thankfully, this was a fad! I don't like children and I am quite impatient so this was never going to be a match made in heaven. I was in two minds about telling you one of the real deciding factors as to why I decided against this career, we're all friends here right? so here goes. Imagine the scene, in the classroom on work experience (yes I was that serious about this!) sat in maths class, just had a P.E class which actually wasn't too bad, this is the job for me...I can do this! I'm going to give out little stickers and have a chart for good behaviour and I will organise the annual school play...it was all falling into place. I then got asked a question by the teacher..."So Paul, Jennifer here thinks that 7/12's is the biggest fraction written up on the blackboard, would you agree with her"...bitch! why would she do that!? put me on the spot like that?! I took a quick glance "Yes, I would agree with her definitely!" I smiled at Jennifer! She smiled back..."No, in fact 3/4 is the biggest fraction on the board"...everyone and I mean EVERYONE looked at me, I heard them whisper to each other..."Did you hear that? he got it wrong, I don't want him to help me" - I WANTED TO DIE!

Music Industry Management

It was when I got to secondary school that I discovered music, well when I say music I mean pop (which a lot of the haters out there wouldn't classify as music)..either way, I started going along to CD:UK (R.I.P), Top of the Pops (R.I.P) and other music events and really got into the lifestyle; this was it! this is what I wanted to do! - it was glamorous, there were parties galore, I would meet the stars. I sent excited letters to every major record label in London and got NO replies, not one!

Backing Dancer

So it was proving too difficult to get into artist management...no biggy! I would take my love of music and become a backing dancer instead! that would be far easier to get into (!?!??!?!?!?!?!) What was I thinking? I hadn't trained as a dancer, I didn't belong to an agency! Eventually I decided that I didn't have the determination to do it and after just a few dance classes the dream fizzled out. Saying that, very few people know that I did actually spend a summer, God it must be around 5 years ago now, doing a bit of backing dancing for a guy from my home town of Chelmsford, he was going to make it big (I don't think he ever did) it was fun whilst we did it, got to do a few gigs, travel around the country a little bit..as far as Leicester I'll have you know! haha Here's a pic of me doing my thang at popshowparty in London (this was my favourite "pegging out the washing" move)...good times!



Buyer

This brings me on to my latest and lengthiest (is that a word?) conquest - to become a fashion buyer! I fell into it by accident if I am perfectly honest, I did Fashion merchandising at Uni, I signed up for it thinking it was visual merchandising, I found out in my interview that it wasn't (how stupid did I feel!? eeek) some how I got a place and well...I loved it; the course, my fellow students..I got to live in New York for 6 months - amazing! I did a year long placement at House of Fraser and continued on there after I left uni and there I remain to this day. I've worked on the menswear private label team developing the product from scratch and more recently moved on to the lifestyle and casualwear team selecting branded menswear, which I enjoy even more! So yes happy where I've ended up, although was a journey!


I still have the fluttering dream of becoming a TV presenter one day; not entirely sure that I would be able to talk to the audience, read the auto-q and listen to someone in an ear piece though?...how would I even practice that?!