Andrew Weil: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

The question

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.

Andrew Weil

Physician; founder of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I had a family physician when I was growing up who was a mentor and steered me towards studying medicine.

Olivendo, Olivendo, 17 October 2022 source ↗

Others on this question

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Desmond Tutu Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

I know that for a very long time my consuming passion, which was confirmed when I contracted TB — I had TB when I was about 12 or so — was I wanted to be a physician and when I got TB I was even more determined. I want to be physician so that I can find a cure for the scourge. And, in fact, I was admitted to medical school. If we had had the funds maybe today I would have been a physician.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗

Marina Abramović Performance artist

Exactly what I am now.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 October 2024 source ↗

Lauren Laverne English radio DJ, and television presenter

I wanted to be like my dad, who was an academic, because he had an office packed full of books, always had loud music on, and seemed to get to do what he wanted.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 February 2022 source ↗

Armistead Maupin American writer

Not a lawyer, which was what I told everyone, because my father wanted me to be one.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 August 2019 source ↗