JK
When I was five, I wanted to be a cleaning lady; when I was nine, I wanted to be the world’s number one tennis player.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 June 2018 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.
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Others on this question
View all 197 →
Ian Rankin
Scottish crime writer
In my teens, an accountant. In my 20s, either a rock star or a novelist.
Aidan Gillen
Irish actor
A stuntman. Evel Knievel was an icon.
Emeli Sandé
British singer
I always wanted to be a singer, but I also wanted to be a doctor. I almost got there: I did four years and got my neuroscience BSc.
Jenna Coleman
English actress
I told my mum I wanted to be a swan.
More from Johanna Konta
View profile →My parents, because they did what they did to give me the opportunities to do what I do. They left their lives behind in Australia and started again in their 40s in a new country.
Like when you get the giggles in a room full of people where you should be quiet.
When I was a young girl in Sydney, I used to go running with my dad. I would wake him up at the crack of dawn and we had this route to the top of a golf course – we’d usually make it there for sunrise.
Being happy. I think that transcends the results of my matches, the so-called successes or failures. How would you like to be remembered? As someone who dedicated their life to what they were doing at the time. Right now, it’s tennis, but I want to have the same dedication for whatever I do after, whether it be motherhood or another career.
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