They wanted to be footballers, dancers, designers and artists. But by the time US astronaut Dr James Reilly had recounted his adventures in space for school children in Dublin yesterday, many of them were plotting a different and less-travelled career path.
The children from St Audoen's National School in the inner city remained spellbound as the astronaut with Irish ancestry spoke about the days he spent in space, lift-offs and landings, and how hard he trained to be the mission specialist on board the space shuttle Endeavour, which docked with the space station Mir.
The figures he mentioned were baffling for nine-year-olds. He travelled in a shuttle at speeds of 28,000 km per hour, 25 times the speed of sound. He orbited the Earth 133 times and travelled 3.6 million miles over nine days. He plans to take three space walks on his next trip next year.
To be in space was like being submerged in water and floating about, he said. It was like being Superman. The children thought this was "really cool".
Dr Reilly told them that he had dreamt of being an astronaut since he was nine years old. He had applied to NASA for years before he was finally called in 1994.
He told the children there was nothing they couldn't do if they believed in their dreams and when he signed autographs for them, that was his message: "Believe in your dreams".
For one child in fourth class, nine-year-old Jamie O'Reilly from Cook Street, it was a dream come true to meet a real astronaut with a similar name to himself. He confessed that he would one day love to try walking in space.
Dr Reilly will be the guest of honour at the Millennium Air Spectacular at Baldonnel air base on Saturday and Sunday, which is expected to attract up to 250,000 visitors.