What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Ahmed Zewail said elsewhere, not written here
But I had decided that science is really the thing…It is what I wanted. Exactly.

Heidi Aspaturian, Caltech Oral History Project, Caltech Archives Oral History Project, 2015 source ↗

Others on this question

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Tracy-Ann Oberman Actor and writer
An actress. My family thought it was ridiculous, it was like saying you wanted to be an astronaut.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 August 2021 source ↗
Andrea Bocelli
A singer. I wanted to live off music ever since I was a child – a wish that came true when I was over 35 years old.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 November 2024 source ↗

More from Ahmed Zewail

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Question When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do? Daily life
Arriving in the States, I had the feeling of being thrown into an ocean. The ocean was full of knowledge, culture, and opportunities, and the choice was clear: I could either learn to swim or sink. The culture was foreign, the language was difficult, but my hopes were high. I did not speak or write English fluently, and I did not know much about western culture in general, or American culture in particular.
Recorded Laureate-written autobiography for Les Prix Nobel, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 December 1999 source ↗

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