J-Lo, a foreign correspondent and, at uni, I assumed that someone would tap me on the shoulder and ask me to be in MI6, but it never happened.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 August 2022 source ↗
The question
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?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.
J-Lo, a foreign correspondent and, at uni, I assumed that someone would tap me on the shoulder and ask me to be in MI6, but it never happened.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 August 2022 source ↗
A doctor, a painter, an actress.
A cellist, inspired by my mum and dad’s friendship with Jacqueline du Pré, and seeing a documentary about her.
Dancing was in my bones from when I started ballet at two.
A barrister or a pop star.
I don’t like it when people manipulate your words, which sometimes happens in the tabloids.
This sounds so silly, but I cry with happiness all the time. I cry when my flowers open!
When I was growing up, I thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger fear to contend with on a day‑to-day basis. It hasn’t proved to be a bother yet, but there’s still time.
My younger self. I told myself so often that I was not good enough, that I was not smart enough, that I was not interesting enough, that I was boring and ugly. I wasn’t kind to my body, and I did and said things to myself that I would never do or say to a friend.
As someone who had a laugh.
I can’t say no. I am a people-pleaser, and it means that I burn myself out because I take on too much.
David Gandy, John Malkovich, Shaun Ryder, Ralph Ineson, Martin Sheen, Carol Vorderman
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