MIGUELGOMEZ said:

You and I think so much alike!

PunkMistress said:

I agree! Venting is a healthy thing to do....I am sure you will do the right thing Alej..you are very smart and very mature for your age...

Nothinbutjoy said:

I can relate to Miguel's post as well...
[Edited 9/3/09 16:46pm]

I hated college. HATED it. I stuck it out, only 3 years and then I had my degree and I was employable. Never looked back.

Nothinbutjoy said:

A million billion CO- to all of this

I'm an accountant in my professional life and follow my heart in my personal life. work gives me the means to live a life, my personal gives me the means to LIVE my life. I get what I need from both ends. Setting yourself up financially is a huge thing and should really be your focus. You'll have time for your dreams and some of them might even change. But get yourself secure first then you can easily follow the rest

I am lucky that what I love to do pays for me to goto college..Sure im tied to that facility for X number of years but then I am guarented (sp) a job! Maybe you can become an apprentise.. Or look into a company that pays for your education..
I know people will shoot me for saying this but if u hate what u are doing now, you will hate it in the future... Why pay for something you hate doing and will end up doing something else in the long run! I think every one of my friends who went to college for one thing ended up working in a TOTALLY different field..
Its never to late to change your major... Why cant u change it to an art major? All the degrees in the world wont make you happy of you hate what u are doing so follow your heart while you are young, and not supporting a mate and a family! Work during the day and go to night school... There are so many possibilities!

Nothinbutjoy said:

you guys

I feel a lot better now. I even got some homework done

It's not at all easy to follow your dream when it's something many folk don't look at as a "real" job (artistic fields). If you don't have the option to switch to an art/fashion school my advice would be to stick it through for now. I wish I had followed through my formal education to the end.
Yes things are happening for me as an artist, but I've been very fortunate to have a partner who supports my passion. I do ok, but am by no means the main bread-winner here...yet. They don't call us "starving artists" for nothing.
It's only under very specific (and lucky) situations that one can usually devote themselves to their artistic dreams on a full-time basis.

Just trying to be supportive, while keeping it real.

No tengo ni una duda que tu realizaras tus suenos.

johnart said:

That's why people say I'm a pessimist

But I know what you mean. That's exactly what my mom said, "Do you want to starve?"

You

I went backwards. I went for my passion, and nailed a pretty sweet gig before I graduated from college. But in seven years I got completely burned out. I thought a stiff job would be cool and get me away from the monsterous egos I worked with in while in radio.

So sometimes it can happen in reverse. I'm 32, and actually re-discovering that I was the shit, and that I was trying to live up to someone else's expectations of life. But I found out, fuck 'em. If you start listening to that little voice insisde you and act on instinct, you work harder and things start to fall into place. Why? Because you will have passion.

Don't feel trapped. Have you taken a liking to architecture? That involves creativity. I went to school with a guy that ran an internet radio station while majoring in physics. There may be other avenues that you can utilize that can help keep you sane. In fact one of my co-workers was a biology major - he was the music director for the station I worked for. The program of study you take will not determine your future.

Doing what the status quo wants you to do will make you a little more money, but you will be so miserable. If you feel like there is no choice, sit down and figure out what you really like. There is nothing wrong with having a side hustle while doing the boring things. I work the most novocaine brain job, but am taking steps back into the other world.

What I'm saying is the major you are in won't block you, and find an outlet that you can create to keep you sane until you find that right niche.

I've been there. Best of luck

I wrote a book, I know.

^ I appreciate your words

I went through the same problem..actually i'm going through the same problem. i wanted to be a psych major because of the pay. then i thought well, i don't real psychology. then i started working a a library, because i remember that i always wanted to do something in the local library. i love the way library science operates. so much in fact, i actually want to study to become a librarian. some people have told me the pay does not cut it. but the joy i get when i help people out in the library is all i need. so i can say that you should do what ever brings joy to, regardless of what the pay is. i believe repressed enough, but i was not going to let it my parents control my career dream. you shouldn't either. follow your dreams regardless.

p.s. my only problem is that you need bachelor's degree first in order to go for the master in library science. can anyone recommend a major that will go hand in hand with the whole library science thing?

Great shares here. I believe there is a huge bunch of us getting to our 40's, I see it coming for me. (1 1/2 years away)

I think I really started to questions which way when I was in my beginning 20's as well. Went to school for like 4ever, I think I stayed at the community college a bit too long. But it all worked out.

After about 11 years of both community college, a few years break and then getting my Nursing Assistant Degree, only then did I finally decide to go the Education Route. (I had no interest in poking people with needles ) It started getting shady after that, which by this time I was in my 30's and left my marriage. I knew Elementary Education would give me stability, but by no means rich. So I graduated with my B.A. in Elementary Ed., Specializing in Art. During my time in the Education Program I was working in the hospital I am in now, doing Dietary () it was an interesting job, very low paying at the time, but rewarding. Being there in the hospital, I was in the perfect situation at the right time. I had no clue it would end up the way it did.

What my point is... after I graduated with my B.A.... little did I know that all the schooling and past experiences, which also consisted of 9 years Montessori Teaching, I would land a job in Child Life, working with Pediatric Patients. I get to incorporate all of what I did over a course of nearly 15 years, definitely was not planned... but along the way, through my questions and uncertainties, unsettled moments and challenges... I truly embraced the time getting there, or here.

I get to advocate for Education, tutor them if needed or if time allows (we have more teachers now for this), understand the medical field, terminology, dietary needs and most of all, do art with these patients- times an endless number, each day.

Will I do this for the rest of my life? I don't believe I will (perhaps not in the exact environment I am in)... I feel I have perfected it to some degree, but I love it nonetheless and forsee myself there for a few more years, maybe more, maybe less.

Even as I approach 40, I know there may be another path out there for me to take after a few things have been completed and delt with. I understand it is important to wait it out. (for specific reasons)

Questioning ones path is good... we learn an incredible amount about ourselves during these very unsettling moments, I believe. While they totally suck as we go through them... it is shaping our very life and solidifying the path that will next come.

I really believe life has a strange way of working itself out, if we continue to be aware of our feelings, thoughts and choices we may make or can make, before making them too quickly. Thinking is good. Good Luck!

Question to Sir Alej.

When you talk about something artistic, do you actually have a picture in your mind? I mean, can you see yourself as a glass sculptor or a painter or composer?

If you can actually see yourself doing something (I mean actually really picture yourself doing it day in and day out with a big fat smile on your face) what you need to do is keep that in the forefront of your mind and work towards it.

I say this for a couple of reasons. The first one is you have to eat and to eat requires sacrifice. Unless you luck out and hook up with a millionaire philanthropist, that is. (At 33 still waiting for mine)

My 'career' (for want of a better word) has been very odd. I left home and school at seventeen out of necessity and have done some shitty jobs. I've also done some very good ones but none of them has really fulfilled my passions. Somewhere along the way I actually lost my passions and it really created a stale robotic feeling to my life. After rediscovering them and starting to do things as hobbies that I love, I find that what I do in my work life doesn't make me unhappy any more. As long as there is enough job satisfaction and your work doesn't suck all of the life out of you and leave you a semi-animated husk, you can funnel your energy into what you love. Then, if things are right for you, one day you'll be able to make the switch to what you really love.

btw you sound like you have ten times the common sense I had at your age. More power to you, my friend!

I m starting this book



It talks about taking small steps. Once a week going on an Artist Date by yourself. Today I m going to Hamleys toy store to play around with the toys.

Hey handsome,

You will get there eventually. Sometimes it seems that you've run out of all options. Remember you're still young, you will get plenty of opportunities. Maybe not as soon as you'd like but it will happen.

Focus on what you really want, make a plan, don't let anything get in the way of that plan. Forget all the obstacles and treat your ideas/wishes as if nothing is standing in its way.

Good luck mister!

JDInteractive said:

I do it all the time. I was born with a razor tongue.

Alej said:

Wow, I feel like you described 50% of my college experience. I wish you could find a major that you enjoyed more, because when you hate what you're studying, going to class is torture...But I would definitely advise you to finish school! More doors are open for you with a degree. Maybe you could work a few years before you save up enough to follow your dreams. That's kind of what I'm trying to do now

I suppose everyone needs to vent now and again but before I begin to take what I have for granted, I think about the millions of victims of war and children in third world countries that don't even have food or water. It helps you assess your feelings and makes you put things into better perspective and appreciate what you do have and have the opportunity to achieve, like an education, unlike millions of others.

babooshleeky said:

We're triplets!

connorhawke said:

I really can see myself doing it and a few other thangs

But I've given this a lot of thought. I started school, now I have to finish - even if I don't really love it but idk.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

That's hot.

MacDaddy said:

thanks.

thekidsgirl said:

That's what my mom keeps telling me. And yes, going to class is torture sometimes. Although I am feeling a bit better today

>If you went my son, I would make a consultation with a good astrologer and it would evaluate which the possibilities / orientations written in the base of your native theme;

>It cannot be a consultation with an onlooker, but qualified people exist, studious of the astrological science that can help
>For me, the astrology works as an auxiliary; there are no magic incomes, everything depends on your free will.. it certifies you in the astrologer's qualification! they exist many curious in these knowledge areas; it's necessary to be careful(don't enter to see in Net on this subject)!

>And you ned to be, above all, skeptic: not to believe without filtering; in it finishes the judgement of the situation will be always of the own interested party in solving the his star

>Patience; it can just be a difficult traffic, that goal to the proof your answer capacity; for norm the change cycles or test to our learning (or of what we needed to know to file edges and to follow our road) they are done of 25 in 25 years.... but cycles that have to be appraised individually, although some aspects areare of generation (as the one of Uranus)

>Tries to evaluate under this prism: you can have many pleasant surprises, or no, but same those will always be to improve the knowledge on us own.

for you build yours
[Edited 9/7/09 5:56am]