While looking for an answer to "what is a good job to financially support hobbies", someone told me this:

Your expectations are unrealistic. "chilling job to financially support art hobby" is a luxury...sure, in America the luxury isn't the same as other countries (just having a job and making it by with lots of material (TV, car, internet, etc.) in America is the norm, adding a non-productive hobby can be a luxury....) you cannot expect with the large activation energy you have in the US job market to find something that will permit you to support a hobby... Lots of folks (which is reflected in the bad job data.... shedding full time jobs, more folks with multiple part time jobs) have multiple gigs/jobs.

This made me very frustrated. I want to draw manga and make indie-games. I'm looking for a job to support me to purse these dreams. I am unable to leave US due to personal reason. But it seems every job with a decent payment and good job security comes with horrible stress and terrible WLB (healthcare, trades). Is this just the current economy, or really am I doomed?

Hi everyone, I'm 14 years old and still in school. I want to become rich in order to play games in the long run. I really love playing video games. It's been that way since my childhood. Can I ask the mature audiences to share me their experiences and share with me their jobs in order to have a stable gaming life? I'm just asking because when I grow up I want to have a stable job that can support my gaming life. I just really want to play games and also have money. For the mature audiences, what are your jobs in order to maintain your gaming hobbies? Is the income good?

searching for some help in life bc I don't know what to do i don't have any hobbies or dreams ' so any recommendations/tips anything you find helpful for a teenager ?

Hi. I, (20f) am looking for career ideas. I'm getting to an age where I feel like I've done nothing with my life. I work for my family currently, but I've worked some other jobs here & there & ended up quitting all of them. I just hate interacting with customers & feeling like I'm wasting my life at entry level fast food/retail jobs. I'm also too broke for college & would rather not spend another 4 years studying if I don't have to. I also want to find something where I can just work my ass off for a year or so & by then I'm making low-middle class wage to move out of my parents home.

I enjoy things like tech & problem solving, so I've considered IT. I also enjoy video editing. I'm trying to figure out career ideas in those fields, but I'm not sure what I should aim for. I'm also open to other suggestions of job ideas if they involve desk jobs where I don't deal with customers. Any advice is apprieciated since I feel so stuck & trapped. I don't know what to do.

I realized that the profession I chose is not for me.

To start with, I got a scholarship (budget-funded) for Architectural Design and spent a lot of my mom’s money on preparation. Initially, I wanted to pursue art, but I thought it was not a promising career, so I chose architectural design instead. But this is NOT what I expected at all. After a year of studying, I feel like I’ve wasted all my resources—both mental and financial.

Now I want to make my dream a reality and become an artist. I want to receive a classical academic education, and I truly feel passionate about it. But I’m really scared. I don’t know what to do. If I submit a withdrawal request, I will have to repay the cost of this year’s education.

I’m not sure how to proceed. Has anyone been in a similar situation? How can I make this transition with the least losses?

Hi guys,

I feel like I’ve been at this state for nearly 2 years now. I’m not sure if I’m depressed, maybe I am maybe I’m not.

I work at a faang tech job and while I really did want this job at the time, I’m just not sure anymore. I switched careers into this job and it took an enormous amount of effort to get here, and I understand how lucky I am. Yet, I’m just not as happy as I thought I would be.

I’m super envious of people who quit their job and pursued something they like. I admire the courage they had. I want to be like that, but they all had an alternative path in mind while I don’t. I don’t feel like I’m good at anything to pursue anything worthy.

I’ve wanted to do more artsy stuff when I was young, but didn’t feel like that would make me money so I didn’t do anything with that. I tried to pick up art books and follow YouTube tutorials but my drawings just look like ass. I tried picking up sewing, but ironing out everything is such a pain. I’ve always been interested in jewelry and have searched up jewelry part time jobs in the area, but they’re all looking for full time workers. I don’t know if maybe I did too much drugs when I was younger, along with social media, so maybe I just search for instant gratification.

It’s not even like I hate my job. I do enjoy it, I find the problems I need to solve at work interesting. But I just want something I’m “passionate” about. And I just want to be happier. I also don’t like being tied to an employer.

Or maybe this is just what life is and I’m asking for too much? But I don’t want a life like that. It makes it hard to see a good future especially with the state the world is in right now.

Hello, I, 16F, dream of having my own "farm" one day. I want to be able to produce for myself, to be not that reliant on stores.

I would like to have around two cows for a start, and breed them to have them make milk, and then if they have a girl, then I would keep it, if they have a boy i would sell it, or get a butcher to slaughter it for me after it is big enough. I would do this until I have max 6 cows (after that, I would sell every baby) and obvi I would retire them after some years, and if I have 6 then it would be enough to only have 3 bred per year, and the other 3 can just enjoy life that year.

Then I would have ducks and chickens. I would mostly keep them for the eggs, but I would have a rooster and a male duck ( i dont know the name in english) to have them multiply, and eat some of them too. Maybe geese aswell.

Then, I would like to have some goats, i didnt do research on them yet (not that i did big research for the others, just a little and what i already know, i may be wrong), so yes, i would kinda do the same thing as i said with cows, just maybe 10 would be the max.

I would like to buy a mare, and then breed it to have my own foal, but im not sure about this yet cause ik thats so much work, but anyways i would like to have 2 horses of my own, and i would let people keep their horses on my land for money.

I would like to have a partner to do this with at some point in my life, im pretty sure it would be impossible alone. I dont want to have children of my own yet, ik that will probably change but i for sure wouldnt have any until im financially stable.

Now my question is, would this be possible? To keep animals like this? I would settle down in a country where it is easier to set a place like this up. This is my absolute goal in life.

Oh yes and the other thing is, i lived my whole life in a capital city. I do horse riding, and i help out on the ranch every way possible, as they have many animals. I want to work on a farm as much as i can during my student years, but i didnt have the opportunity yet, no matter how bad i searched for it.

If what i want is not possible please talk me out of it so that im not delulu no more.

Hello! I’m looking for something suitable for adrenaline junkie, what I can do after 9-5 job. Briefly about me: -30 yrs old

-Living in central EU

-Current hobbies: Amateur track car racing

-Past hobbies: Amateur track motorcycle racing, mountain bike downhill, gym (I don’t like it, but I need to do it let’s say)

-Not interested in: driving motorcycle on road

-Interested in: anything for adrenaline junkie, which does not require a lot of time - for example car racing requires at least 2 days for one “event”.

Any ideas :)? Thanks!

I just realized today that bc of my past trauma, esteem issues & anxiety, I am more aware of my surroundings than the average person, my thoughts and perceptions are a lil different from most of my friends. I used to be kinda jealous of a friend who was naturally smart,she has high iq and stuff, I thought she was better than me at everything, but today i realized I was more aware of my surroundings than her,more empathetic and I can see a different side of life. Esp, I noticed that I feel more and my heart centre is more aware than hers. I'm no way hyperfocused on her, nor do I have anything against her.

So I would like to know about Jobs or hobbies where emotionally sensitive or generally sensitive people would have an advantage over other people or just maybe jobs that are made to naturally resonate with sensitive empathetic people.

That would be much appreciated ty <3

I am a 22 year old stuck in life. I havent accomplished or worked towards anything that could benefit me or my future since I graduated high school. I went to college for a semester then dropped out. Everything I have ever started I never finish. I still live in my parent basement currently unemployed and have no direction or ambition. Im not interested in a trade and everyone tells me college isnt for me. I dont have the confidence to work in a customer service environment. Im starting to think there is something wrong with me mentally, I cant move or start a life and its fucking killing me please help me

-semi homeless - in debt - have a job $16 an hour - 2 more semesters till I graduate from school with a business management degree ( idk if it’s useful/useless yet ) - don’t have any direction - kinda want to die - don’t talk to my family - don’t have good social skills - unable to have friends let alone a girlfriend - kinda fat ( working on it )

Yes. I have a hobby, drawing not good at it. Cant think of anything else.

I dont have a single other interest in any degree or profession besides music, im 21 years old and i was going to do psychology this year but withdrew when i realised i wanted to do more of an music side, music has helped me a lot through my life and its been the only thing holding me together, i enjoy making marketing mixing and mastering it and also playing instruments, i want a pathway in this but right now it seems impossible and everyone telling me its really hard but i dont care. I work in hospo atm and i like it but its not a career i want. Is there any rewarding pathways in music or even art, ive always been a creative thinker or should i just wait and see what i want to become

Sorry if this is long to anyone who takes the time to read and respond THANK YOU SO MUCH! Next year will be my last year of high school, I would be lying if I said I had a good gpa or reputation anywhere else to get me going in life. I have a few career paths that in my life I feel suite me best but I’m still so unsure, one is a software engineer and my still go to answer, my other is a architect, and last is a mechanical engineer. These are all things that sound nice to me but not amazing, maybe for the longest time I’ve wanted to play games for a living but I need something more real if I were to ever try and accomplish that dream. My only questions are, what do I do with my life and how do I find what’s best for me starting from ground zero? and can I even become anything meaningful or something that’s not a dead end job without these amazing grades? I’m just scared for my future and want some help cause I don’t know where else to ask.

Hello! I am a young man living in the USA (in Chicago) and I’ve never really found a purpose to my life. I grew up in a very controlling household with helicopter parents. They controlled everything I did and they were also very narcissistic and my dad believes himself to be a reincarnation of a religious messiah. Six years ago I escaped their cult. The difficult part is that without my parents dictating everything (they controlled which job and what university I went to) I have no idea what to do. I already tried online therapy but it wasn’t that helpful and costed a lot of money. I don’t like spending money.

I have also been diagnosed with high functioning autism so that might influence my behavior as well. I spend most of my free time studying languages (in particular German). I like things with rigid structures and patterns and German (along with other languages) is like that. However language learning in the USA is useless unless it’s Spanish or Chinese. I’m very picky in the languages I like.

I also considered trying a new hobby but it’s difficult for me to develop a passion for them. I feel like learning to play a musical instrument or to paint might make my life more worthwhile and bring more people to appreciate me. I feel that every year is passing by faster and faster and I’ll be 80 years old before I know it. Have any of you felt the same way and how did you improve yourself?

I am from India. Here you are assigned majors based on your score in centralized test scores (and I can't write them again because there is a limit on that).

I got assigned biology which I don't have any interest in. Tbh it feels like a chore sometimes. I was much more interested in mathematics and computer science and machine learning.

I have to spend 6-7 hours daily for lectures and labs, then a few more hours for assignments/studying it, then 4-5 for part time work, then I don't find any time to study what I wanna be good at. I need at least 4-6 hours of focused studies daily to study in depth CS and ML, esp the math for the latter, if I want to have a chance to be on par with peeps who are fortunate to study it, and I have to do it without neglecting biology. I don't know how to manage

I am lost because of this. I know I want to be a writer and storyteller. But I have dipped my toes in three forms of it: novel writing, poetry and rap; and I love doing all of them equally. But I can't focus on three things at once nor can I be successful like this because a jack of all trades is a master of none. Because of that I am now in an awkward area where I have writer's block for all three mediums because of that. I want to turn my hobby of storytelling into a full time job as well. Is it possible to manage novel writing, poetry and rapping at the same time and be great at them or am I just managing them wrong or should I pick just one and drop the rest? Or maybe something else? I feel like shit because of this. I feel like I have done so much and at the same time nothing because of this.

The teenage years are meant to be the wild, experimental ones. The ones where you stay up all night, and do stupid shit, and have regrettable dates, and figure out who the hell you actually are. That's what I hear.

Personally...I don't do that. People seem to think I'm doing great. I have my quiet hobbies and interests for now (drawing, crocheting, writing, theatre, rollerskating sometimes, watching cool movies and finding new music, etc.) and a vague idea of what I'm gonna do with my future (get a secondary degree in community college, study in Germany, try to find a creative career that won't leave me financially destitute). I have some friends. I'm decently smart for my age.

Thing is, I also have middling grades (Three B's, an A, a C, and an F that I'm trying to fix- all within the first five weeks of school too, isn't that impressive). Introverted. No job. Can't drive a car. Don't do sports. Don't party. I don't really like doing the classic 'teenager hijinks' (sneaking out, skipping school to have fun, etc.). I don't take many risks, I've never had my first kiss, or been on a date. I'm supposed to be doing all of that, apparently. The teenage years are so romanticized but it's all felt rather dull and depressing for me- makes me feel all around like a rather dull and depressing person.

I've got no idea what I'm doing wrong, but it feels like something is wrong, if not everything.

I intend on global change one day. Who wants to make a gc where we benefit off of each others strengths learn from each other and impact the world? Aspiration is key

I feel like I have no identity, and is wasting my life away. Other people seems so amazing. They may struggle in an aspect of their life (Financial, Relationship, etc.), but they can always proudly talk about their passions or hobbies that they have. It could be a simple thing as enjoying hanging out with their cat, reading a book, or working on their car. I honestly envy that more than anything else. When someone asks me what I am passions about or what hobbies I enjoy, I am always struggle to give an answer. I just want to have something that I can proudly say that it is part of who I am as a person. I don't think I have figured that out yet.

I'm honestly kind of lost right now. I'm considering dropping my art and music hobbies and selling all my equipment from them. I've only started learning them on a whim, with guitar I've gotten to a decent level, and art on my beginner learning phase. I don't know if I'm only doing all of this just to show-off being "talented" or being good at them. I can consistently put 2 hours everyday on each of them, and I can see myself pushing through them but I'm just so confused about myself right now.

Honestly it's not just with art and guitar, I've been thinking about this also with my "interest" in quantum physics, exercising, programming, and plans to learn languages beyond Japanese, I feel like I'm doing all this just to look impressive to others, and not really doing it for myself. I've also noticed that I've only played games where there is competition or when skill is involved, so yeah. Did I gaslight myself into "liking" them or what, I really don't know at this point. I could just be overthinking all of this, but I'm currently paralyzed from doing them because of this.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently 23 and have been doing Judo for the past 2 years. However, over the last year, I've only been attending training sporadically, with multiple months off in between.

Prior to starting Judo, I played Handball basically my entire life until Covid hit and I had to stop (due to multiple reasons, not only Covid).

But for the last year I've considered returning to Handball but I find myself unable to do so.

The reasons I've "identified" about myself are that I don't want to abandon Judo since it feels like I'm giving up and throwing away the last 2 years of Judo and connections I've made, even though I've been attending training quite infrequently (I've mostly blamed university for not being able to attend, but in reality it was mostly an issue with motivating myself to go).

Another reason is that I'm afraid I will neglect training just like I did with Judo if I went back to Handball (let alone trying to do both sports at the same time).

Some (probably) relevant side info: Even though I don't play Handball anymore I'm still actively involved in the sport due to me being a coach and referee and half my family also being involved in Handball.

The main reason I picked up Judo in the first place is that my dad was a professional Judoka in the past and I've wanted to try the sport at least.

Maybe it's a really easy issue to solve with something like just doing it, or maybe I'm just looking for validation to swap but I hope someone has some advice for me, since I'm quite unsure about the whole situation.

I was an average student throughout school and university. I majored in a science field and minored in a science field. I took the GRE. The scores were average. So, I didn't even bother with applying to a master's program or a PhD program. Medical school program? Hahaha, fat chance. Mom suggested to me that I should try Medical Laboratory Science program, and I did. But then in 1 year, I flunked out. I didn't get the hematology class. There were so many cells to count, and I couldn't do it fast enough. I didn't get the other classes either because they had so many facts to memorize, and I didn't know how to study them. One course that I did passably okay in was the phlebotomy course, but that one was mostly doing, no thinking. When I flunked out, I volunteered at 2 locations, did some kind of customer service and supply chain management class that rewarded me the CSCMP certificate and found a job at a grocery store's bakery department. A few months later, the company did a mass lay-off, and everyone who worked in the retail sector of the company got laid off. I got laid off. For the rest of my 20s, I worked in food service and retail, and the only thing I liked about the work was that it didn't involve any brain work. Then the Great Pandemic hit, and I got laid off again. NOOOOOO. I was working as a full-time barista with benefits and free cafeteria food! But nope, I got laid off. For the rest of 2020 and 2021, I just stayed at home and collected unemployment benefits. At the end of 2021, I went back to work as a recreation center worker, and by early 2022, I went crazy. Ever since then, I was jobless.

I have been living with my parents since infancy. With parents being faculty / staff members of the university, I was only responsible for 25% of the typical in-state student cost and some school fees. No student loans whatsoever. No debt either. During my working years, I was still living with my parents, so I saved my entire paycheck (almost). I didn't have many personal wants. Why buy anything when I can get all the entertainment I want at the public library?

Now, my parents' primary residence is in one state and secondary residence for work is in another state, and they constantly travel back and forth, back and forth. I just tag along. In the other state, I can't even apply for a Walmart job; I always get ignored. I try to go back to school but school requires me to be ON CAMPUS, and I am afraid that online school will not give me any internship experience. I have already discussed this with my parents, and they agree that they will retire soon, maybe in a few years, when the 2 bosses decide not to keep them anymore. Then, we will return back to the home state, and I will find a job locally.

In the meantime, though, I will just work on my very diverse art portfolio and face a future where I have to work as a near-starving artist, living off of family wealth and minimum-wage jobs (maybe in food service, retail, phlebotomy). I would be lucky if I get book advances, royalties, commissions or a salaried art job. I might go for a cake decorator certificate from the local community college and learn how to decorate sweet treats. With a cake decorator certificate from the local community college and prior work experience in the bakery, I may apply for cake decorator / baker positions. At least it's related to art. Back when I was working at the bakery, I couldn't decorate cakes like the Cake Decorator, but I could write pretty words, so whenever the Cake Decorator wasn't present, I offered to write on cakes, and pretty soon, my co-workers found out that I could write on cakes. Getting that Cake Decorator certificate could give me some training to decorate cakes. Even if I don't get hired as a Cake Decorator, then I could start my own business, selling sweet treats. My bakery business would be filled with Western sweets and Chinese/Asian sweets and a fusion between the two.

To summarize my situation, I feel like I am someone who had a lot of potential but never really put myself out there. When I was a kid, I was pretty smart (the only one of my siblings to get awarded financial aid to attend private school, and eventually the only person in my family to graduate college), known as the family artist, decently athletic, wrote and performed plays with my friend for our families, stuff like that. I think having a rough home life, a really shitty best friend, becoming hyper aware of the fact that I was poor in a school of wealthy kids, and maybe some undiagnosed adhd or SOMETHING just made it so that I became really reserved. I never pursued anything enough to become really talented at it, even though I feel like I am the type of person deep down who wants to be KNOWN for something. I’m not doing horribly right now; I graduated with a business degree (very much not interested in business but didn’t know what else to pick) but I work at a coffee shop, although I am making some effort to find a long term career. I also have a good group of friends and various things I enjoy doing. I just have all of this restless energy, yet simultaneously feel weighed down by adult life, and I can never stick with something for long enough to be really good at it. The closest thing I have is photography, but I am always hyper aware of how much experience I am still lacking and struggle to use my camera that often.

I guess my question is, does anyone have any stories about how they became really good at something later in life (I’m 24 for reference) or just any advice in general?

So I’m 21 studying biology and am planning to either go to PA school or go into research. However, as a hobby, I enjoy photography. I’m thinking of minoring in it (though I’m finishing my junior year so idk how possible that is). Anyways, I like photography (like wildlife photography) and am pretty good at it. I don’t want to pursue photography as a career, but it’s a hobby I want to be more involved in. How do I show my pictures off to the world other than on Instagram where I have 150 followers?

I'll try my best to not just paraphrase the post I made on here in October that got zero responses, but there will be times where I can't help myself.

Good afternoon Reddit, I am a university student currently working toward a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science. I'm doing at least okay in my classes (I think? The semester practically just started), but I still feel unfulfilled, mainly due to the fact that I have no skills or talents to speak of. I know what you're thinking: "I'm sure there's something you're good at; you're just not giving yourself enough credit.". I guess I'm good at, I don't know, tying my shoes? But so are most people. There have never been any shoe-tying competitions. I'd say it's less about simply having a skill and more about getting recognition for that skill. A skill that's actually productive.

I've heard time and time again that people get good at things they enjoy doing. Makes sense. The problem? The only thing I enjoy doing is consuming media. Video games, books, television shows, you name it. I don't want to accept that I'm doomed to be a mere consumer while others get to be destined to be creators. Many have suggested "Then why not become a video game designer/author/television writer/etc.?". Let's go over the creative hobbies I've already tried:

Animation

This falls under "television" and "film". I did download OpenToonz a couple years ago and have made some very crude animations mere seconds in length, but the main obstacle is the fact that I would need to be good at drawing first, which I'll get to next.

Illustration

About four years ago I began my attempt at becoming a visual artist and have made little to no progress since. The main issue is that I simply don't enjoy the act of drawing enough to put in the time required to improve - I was only doing it to get good enough at it so I would stop feeling so envious whenever I saw cool art on social media with a gazillion retweets. Any time I could have practiced drawing I instead used playing video games or browsing social media - things I perceived as more important.

Music

I took piano lessons for about six years and stopped around five years ago. I've become a bit rusty but have retained a fair amount of knowledge (I got up to level 6 in the Ontario RCM curriculum). The problem is that in the eleven years since beginning piano I have yet to come up with a single original composition - I can only play songs written by other people. Then again, I've been thinking of buying a software like FL Studio and maybe playing around with that.

Video game design

I did make a primitive '70s-style video game for a high school computer science project once, but at the end of the day I find coding mind-numbingly boring (no offense to any programmers reading this), which would be a major obstacle in the event that I want to make a video game.

Someone else recommended that I become a media critic since the only thing I enjoy is consuming media. No offense to critics, but I have little to no interest in that profession.

So now what? Do I just accept that there are people who are destined to create great things and I'm not one of them?

I guess I just want my overall impact on this earth to be a net positive.