As a kid, some in my family would say I was going to be a doctor, but the idea frightened me because I was deathly afraid of needles. I've since gotten over it for the most part, but it was pretty bad.
At that point in time I wanted to be an actress. I had been in every school play up until the age of 11 (mostly big parts) and did some community theater and had some auditions with agents and such. But my mother had a big problem with a lot of the auditions I did - mainly because of money. She even said to me once that she didn't want to change her job and her life if I had gotten a part in a TV show. To say that she was a small reason of why I stopped trying for auditions is an understatement.
Around the age of 14, I started watching a lot of the hospital documentaries (Trauma: Life In The ER, etc) and began researching anything I didn't understand. The whole thing interested me a lot, yet it still didn't hit me that maybe it could be something to do with my life until a year after high school, when I had barely graduated - I'm incredibly smart (I'd like to think) but I barely gave a crap in HS. But I got my grades up at a CC, and now I'm entering my freshman year at a 4-year uni this fall a few years later than most.
All in all, I don't regret the change. I still love acting, and I hope to maybe get into any productions my college happens to offer if I can make the auditions/rehearsals. And if not, that's okay, too. I know I'm going to love what I'm doing 8 years from now.