Teacher laughed at my dream job

I get it. the overused joke. but really...whats so bad about being a teacher?

the bad thing about being a teacher in a sixth form/college is that you rarely find teachers that actually wanted to become teachers. its always a back-up plan if they couldnt get a job in the field they actually wanted. so because they couldnt achieve their dream they want to put other peoples down. sorry but thats crap tbh.

I was discussing my PS with him and he asked me what I wanted to do in life. I told him that I want to design spacecraft. He laughed at me, I was really offended and hurt. I kept thinking, 'Does he think I will fail?' My AS grades are pretty average/poor so maybe he's right I am already insecure about my academic ability, it's even worse when even one of my favourite teachers don't think I can get the dream job.

My Head of VIth Form told me not to bother applying to KCL because they wouldn't look at me with my GCSE results. I applied anyway, got accepted and ended up getting 4 A*s. Teachers don't know the future. Chris Hadfield dreamed of being an astronaut when Canada didn't even have a space program. If he listened to the first person who told him to give up he wouldn't have got where he is today. Don't listen to anyone else but what you want to do, tell anyone else who says you can't do it to go f*ck themselves. You can do it, you just need to believe in yourself and put the work in. :-)

Anyone who laughs at a young person's dreams is not fit to be a teacher.


You could always be an astronaut. :-) Although astronomer might be more attainable. Both those links take you to pages with more links that could be helpful to you, such as the ESA.

Becoming an astronaut is a childhood dream as much as I'd love to be one, I have to be realistic here.

the bad thing about being a teacher in a sixth form/college is that you rarely find teachers that actually wanted to become teachers. its always a back-up plan if they couldnt get a job in the field they actually wanted. so because they couldnt achieve their dream they want to put other peoples down. sorry but thats crap tbh.

Well it's very specific and it's quite unlikely you'll get all the way to space... but there's nothing wrong with having it as an ambition. Low chance of a success shouldn't be a reason for not trying to achieve something providing you still end up with good options if it doesn't work out.

Have a look at what you need to do to become an astronaut... post graduate study, relevant science or engineering career, likely both. you can't even apply til you're 27... the consequences of doing all that and then not becoming an astronaut aren't really that terrible - you've already got a career anyway. Might as well try your hardest and see how far you can go.

The problem with 'low probability career ambitions' is IMO the people who think they don't need to try exerting themselves in any academic or career enabling directions because they're going to make it on their raw talent alone... so they may as well kick back... this includes a lot of wannabe Wayne Rooney's, Beyonce's and Katie Prices. Most of them will fail and the consequence will be struggling to even get a minimum wage job.

I was discussing my PS with him and he asked me what I wanted to do in life. I told him that I want to design spacecraft. He laughed at me, I was really offended and hurt. I kept thinking, 'Does he think I will fail?' My AS grades are pretty average/poor so maybe he's right I am already insecure about my academic ability, it's even worse when even one of my favourite teachers don't think I can get the dream job.