I'm in a bit of a internal dilemma right now. You see, my family all have very successful careers, Dad is an engineering teacher, My Mum and my Cousin are doctors, and my sister is a Pathologist. I've reached the time of my life where I need to start making decisions about what I'm going to do once I finish my High School Certificate Exams, and for years, I've always wanted to be an Electro-Engineer, mostly for the money, but only because I want to make my Dad proud of me, to show him that I am capable of being something in my life besides a lazy a** who plays videogames. So I went and I chose the subjects I needed for the profession etc.

But now here's my dilemma, after having done a year working towards my goal...I feel no enjoyment from the work we do anymore, the fun I once had isn't there anymore, now all I see is work, and formulas and monotony. So when I reached Year 11 I added Legal Studies and Art to my list of subjects, and truth be told; ever since I started doing these subjects I have felt the previously mentioned feelings, but not for Physics, I am finding more enjoyment out of Legal and Art. My problem is that I would rather chase a career as an artist/illustrator or whatever more than an Engineer, and this time not because of money, but for happiness. And yet, I still want to be an engineer because I know that my family, (Dad especially) will never be impressed by a family member picking up Pencil and Paper as a living. I know the minute I speak to them about it I will have disappointed Dad, mainly because he believes there is no work or money to be made from an Arts Degree.

So, I feel torn, I feel torn between the happiness of my family, or my own. I feel torn about constantly lying about my hopes and dreams to my Dad, while looking at him, knowing he's having more pride in me by the day, and that's what hurts most.

tl;dr: If you're not gonna read through 2-ish paragraphs then you aren't willing to help.

long term or short term, you can't live your entire life doing something you don't want to do for someone else's sake, even if it's family. you only get one life, and you should spend it in a way that will make you happy. it sucks that it's going to be such a challenge to talk to your dad about it, but all you can do is hope he understands and is supportive, even if he's not then you'll know you're doing the right thing by him by telling him the truth.

I'm just an outsider, but it could be that you aren't giving your dad enough credit. Maybe he'd have no problems with it, proud of you whatever you're doing. But you know him better than I do.

Ultimately, Tid is right. Let him live his life for himself, and you live yours.

You could always go for the stable Electro-Engineer job and as a hobby continue with art and other stuff, that is if you are really dead-set to prove this thing to your father, also what Term said, on top of that you can just talk to your father about it, make him happy and don't neglect yourself, hear what he has to say, then think about the possibilities, the future can hold lots of different outcomes.

...Party hard?

You mention that you also enjoy Legal Studies as a subject; going with what Nixter said it might pay off to find a 'more stable' career in that. A career in law is also a pretty big succes, you might want to consider that option if you truly enjoy the matter thaught in that class.

I have faced a similair dillema. I have always enjoyed drawing and I have always wanted to be a comic book artist, I still do. However, you have to take every aspect of a job in the art business into consideration: as a freelance artist you have to be pretty good to live off your drawing alone. I knew I only wanted to work on my own comics, and not paintings or anything, but in order to secure a stable job in art you have to be diverse. There is also the issue of turning your hobby into your job which ultimately makes you lose interest in your hobby because you are forced to do it. Be critical of yourself when you ask yourself the question; "Will I still find this enjoyable in 10 years?"

Remember that you can secure a job in illustrations and art without a degree: You -can- teach yourself how to draw at a professional level. Keep this in the back of your head. You can even join an art club or courses to still be involved in that world without it requiring 100% of your attention.

I myself made the decision to ultimately not continue my plans of going to art school. I've taken up teaching and I'm working towards becoming an English Teacher. A lot of people have always told me I'd make a good teacher and I enjoy giving presentations and helping people. I'm almost done with the first year now and I really enjoy the material a lot, I have turned out to be very capable with the social and pedagogical content of the job as well although there is tsill a lot I have to learn about the language. As a teacher, you get a lot of free time as well, with the vacations. When I find a job I intend to use this free time to get my comic book work off the ground if by then I considre myself good enough. So in the end I can still do both things that I like.

At the end of the line I think that this is something you and you alone can decide though. As mentioned by Tid and Term you should talk to your parents about what's in your heart. Don't let their careers distract you, I'm certaiin they'd be proud of you if you're doing what you love.

tl;dr: My advice is to find a job/profession where you have a lot of free time to still draw. If by any chance you get a decent earning off of that you can slowly start to make it your full time job and then you'd still even have your other degree to fall back on.

I can only hope he would be supportive of anything I did, he wasn't all that happy when i did Art as a subject.



Well, with what is stated above, I haven't seen him be proud of anything else I've done, I can take a good guess that he would be proud of me, after a few years of being disappointed, he's not a creative type of guy, he hates art.


Get out.





I have contemplated this, and I asked my Legal teacher what a job like this is like, my answer was less than I'd hoped for, most careers in a law firm usually only go for 3-4 years if memory serves correct if you become a judge/lawyer. A solicitor doesn't sound too bad though.

I'd be all for keeping Art as a hobby, I can see that Art is a very hard profession to live off by it alone, and considering this is Australia there's not a great deal of Art related professions as opposed to the rest of the world, which is one of my main problems with wanting to do Art.

The main reason Dad would be very disappointed if I changed my mind is because if I go with this Degree, I get tied in with an Electrical Company, so they pay for my Uni supplies, and they give me a job for when I'm on Uni break, plus a full-time job with them once I finished my Uni Degree. Personally, I still like the sound of this deal, but it all depends on me getting an A in Physics and at least a high B in Maths, right now I'm averaging a low C in Maths, and there is no guarantee I will get into the Uni with this deal the same time I finish School, which is another of my main problems.

Thank you for the advice guys, it means a lot to me, it gives me some stuff to think over.

Sorry to hear you don't think he'll be very supportive of the art stuff.
Even knowing that though I still stand by what I originally said, you should live your life in a way that makes you happy. If that means going down a path dad doesn't agree with then it sucks but it's still more important that you're enjoying your life than someone else is happy with how you're enjoying it.

do what you enjoy. he won't be around forever to tell you otherwise, and he can't force you to be happy doing what he wants.

People's opinions about things change, so it's pretty natural that you would do this. I'd say that it'd be really nice for you to peruse what you'd like to do. I feel like your dad would understand if you talked to him about what you care about. What's family for, right?

I agree with Superkid and Tid. Even if you don't Dad doesn't support or approve, he may still be proud of you for pursing what you like. And if he doesn't, there's still other family members that you're close too, I assume. They would probably be proud if he's not. Just do what makes you happy. Sorry if I'm just repeating things. Advice isn't really my strongpoint.

law is a satisfying career and you would have time to do art. plus there's little that would make your parents more proud

I went to law school for a year as well, but I eventually gave up because even though the material was interesting and new I simply didn't see myself sticking in that type of crowd for the rest of my life. Law school is a lot of reading and the material is very dry so you have to ask yourself if you're okay with sitting through all of that.

Do remember that a law career doesn't neccesarily mean you have to become either a judge or laywer. You could be a legal advisor. Heck, you could even become a legal advisor at an art company, how neat would that be.


But at the end of the day you have to think about what is the most important to you; money, happiness etc. are all things you have to weight in the scales and it's never an easy choice. Just remember that even if you feel like you've made the wrong choice you can always go study something else. You never sign up for all the years at once.

One thing I have noticed is that you constantly worry that 'your dad' won't approve of how you feel; but where does your mother stand on all of this? I haven't heard you mention her outside from the OP. Have you talked to her about it?

...

Family's a touchy subject for me.
To put it short, I don't talk to my Mum much, she's barely ever home, so I can't really get many chances to talk to her about anything, let alone this stuff. Let's leave it at that, please.


But it's also filled with a lot of things that would make a guy like me feel very doubtful about my decisions, Law's a very screwed up thing, based on the crap my school's spoon-feeding us, but I digress, a career in law would make me feel very unhappy, which is why I've kinda been avoiding it.

Alright, sorry that I brought it up. I was just curious.


Have you considered Game Art&Developement? Then you get thaught how to code as well as all kinds of art stuff (mainly within the realm of concept art, which could lend you a job on furniture concept art&design, I've designed concept art for a furniture company for quite some time as well)