What do you want to be when you grow up?

My dad asked my son what career he wanted to pursue when he leaves school. My son said he’s not sure. He wanted to be a vet when he was a little boy but now he’s clueless. My dad said it’s a very bad sign that a 16 year old doesn’t know what he wants to do. I tend to disagree. I think it’s wonderful if someone knows from an early age what they’d like to do for a living, but it’s not the end of the world if you're not sure.

I wanted to be a hairdresser as a child. In fact, I was 100% sure that I was going to be a hairdresser because I was passionate about hair. My parents bought me a hairdressing kit, I bought hairdressing and hairstyle magazines. I taught myself how to do loads of different hairstyles and I also taught myself how to use clippers, how to apply perms, permanent colour and extensions. I honestly thought I was going to own my own salon by the age of 21.

Unfortunately, when I told the school careers officer that I was going to be a hairdresser, she said it was impossible without A Level Chemistry. I was rubbish at Chemistry and asked my careers officer if there was any other way. She said yes dear, years of answering phones and sweeping up hair and then maybe, just maybe you might work your way up to putting on customers’ gowns and washing the hair of old ladies. In an instance, I was completely put off and decided against pursuing hairdressing.

Unfortunately, the 15 year old August was as green as the grass on your front lawn. It didn’t occur to me that the careers officer was talking out of her backside.

I ended up being a very sloppy Secretary. I hated being a Secretary... I hated everything about it and I did everything in my power to jeopardise anything to do with Secretarial work. The only time I was happy was lunch-time and home time. I disliked answering the phone. I was disgruntled when I had to take messages. If anyone asked me to do anything, I'd give them looks that could kill. I could never read my own short-hand. I was allergic to filing and the worst thing you could ever ask me to do was to make tea or coffee. I can't tell you the amount of times I wanted to sabotage someone's tea but Karma was the only thing that stopped me.

I’m still passionate about hair and love both restyling my own hair and going to the hairdressers. In fact, my hairdresser is emigrating to the Caribbean and when she’s gone for good, I’m going to incorporate my holidays with my haircuts.

It’s so unfortunate that as a teenager, instead of trusting my own judgement, I assumed the very unhelpful careers officer knew what she was talking about. I’ll do everything in my power to encourage my children to follow their hearts when it comes to their future careers. There’s nothing worse than taking crap advice and wishing that you listened to your inner voice instead of listening to someone who doesn't give a damn.

So what do I tell my son at 16 who doesn’t know what he wants to be?

I’ll tell him that he’s already who he wants to be; the rest will come in good time.

As long as he's not sponging of me when he's 30. Then I'll give him the remixed version and it won't be pretty.