If there is a better community to ask this question, I’m all ears.
I majored in history because I like history. With a major like mine without a doctor thesis you can only work as a teacher and children are mostly idiots. You could try academia, but the ROI here is so much below zero it doesn’t make any sense.
As a child I was musically gifted but my parents never considered music as something worth following or studying. As an adult I bought me a classical guitar 12 years ago and a grand piano 5 years ago and started playing. I learned to play both instruments on my own.
Don’t think for a moment my technique is good enough to start studying at a conservatory for either instrument. I already rehearsed for a piano professor and he told me I must have invested an insane amount of time, that my technique is simply not good and if I want, he knows of 2 colleges that offer preparatory courses I could attend to.
I work as a firefighter and none of my coworkers even suspects I majored in history or that I’m capable of playing any instrument, it’s something I don’t talk about with any of them because I don’t believe they would understand and they’d start with intrusive questions I hate (if you are so talented like you claim and have a major in history, why are you wasting your time as a firefighter?). I already tried to find a decent job with history and failed. It’s something I don’t want to repeat with a possible major in music. Firefighting, as tiring and unfulfilling as it is, pays my bills and has given me a financial independence I never had, but I never saw myself here.
The curious thing is I have enough money to stop working and covering tuition fees and lodging for 4 years plus the preparatory year, but I don’t know if choosing this path would be the stupidest of decisions ever made. If I work part time, I don’t have to spend my whole savings.
Working as a firefighter I feel I’m wasting my life, I don’t want to be a firefighter till I retire, but this job has given me financial stability and I dread losing that.
I do my job and when I’m not very tired at home after doing the laundry, buying food and cooking, cleaning my apartment, walking a bit to disconnect… I play. It brings me joy but as of now it’s only a hobby. To even monetize it I would have to at least have a bachelor.
Is this what it looks like?
I grew up racing motorcycles. I do a lot of 2-wheel stuff; mountain bikes, recently dabbled in BMX, and if I could, I’d still race motocross. The financial requirements of that are wild though, so I’m using these non-engined outlets to cope lol. My job is fine; it’s not going to get me to a point where I can race again, but I’m not actively seeking it at this point, and the alternatives are pretty nice anyway.
I mean…yeah, this is kind of what it looks like. You find outlets eventually. It only being a “hobby” is not a positive or a negative. Get what you want from it; do you want it to be your every day thing? There are ways to work into some commercial music work; it’s not great pay or easy, but that’s the requirement. No bachelor’s needed. But I don’t think I’d want to monetize anything in the professional sense. I don’t think people get into their hobbies for the great pay, but for what it provides. If you get into music, it isn’t going to be glamorous unless you are lucky. It might not even bring financial stability. It’s also not going to just be sitting with your thoughts and writing music; lot of marketing and self-promotion, lot of putting yourself out there to hope that people resonate with it. Lot of very long days, weeks, months, with 0 guarantee of a pay-off.
A lot of people think being comfortable is settling, and in a sense, it may be that. But it’s also where a lot of people exist for a reason. I look at it as you could either raise your floor and have a lower ceiling for “true” happiness, or lower your floor and have a taller ceiling, so you have a wider range. There is no promise that you will be at the ceiling, or near it, or even above your current floor. May fluctuate wildly, you may have a very slow, steady climb. No one knows.
Firefighters also get a sweet pension to my understanding. Idk your age, but I assume late 30’s to 40’s, and you’re staring a decent retirement in the face in the next 10 years. Lot of life left to fit in there as well, and what would be a measurably comfortable one at that. Just a stranger on the internets opinion though!
I guess to answer the specific question, it’s not what I want, but it’s where I’m at and I’m OK with it. The risk of racing could, quite literally, kill me or maim me beyond repair, and I have somewhat less-risky alternatives. I go to local races to watch, I keep up with professional racing and watch events basically 32 weekends out of the year. I also am just a big motorsport fan, so I watch some IMSA, WEC, and F1 when I can. I guess, identity-wise, I have transitioned from being a racer to someone who has raced, but the door will forever remain open for me to return when I want. I’m just happy with the position I’ve found myself in anyway.