Hi everyone.

This is something I've been battling all my life and I'm sure there are other people out there that could relate to me on this. So I wanted to post this up here with hopes of getting a discussion about it going.

Growing up your told that you need to "do this, do that", told to act mature. Told what is a waste of time and what isn't. You learn money is everything and a good job is what you need when you get out of school. It's time to grow up!

But what if your heart tells you something different than your mind does? Every day it's like there's a battle raging on in my mind between my heart & my brain. My heart knows what it wants, what I enjoy doing. But my brain says "stop it, it's a waste of time! You're throwing your life away! you should be working 9-5 and saving money for a house & kids and car insurance".

Can anyone else relate to this? Do you experience this now, or did you finally make a decision years ago on which you'd listen to?

I can relate, i have loved Parkour/Freerunning all my life but my parents never take it seriously, i am even going TFA Tempest Freerunning Academy, the thing is, it's expensive but i'm managing. My parents are always on my case about it because it's costly and it won't get me anywhere in life, but it's MY hobby and MY money.

See the trick is to get a good education, work hard, make money so you can then afford to do the things you love and if you focus on things you love and figure out how to make money doing it, then all the better.

But you can't focus completely on the things you love to do or sooner or later you will be on the streets or living in your parents basemant till your in your 40s. Unless you were born wealthy, than you can do whatever the hell you want to do.

This is probably going to sound like a cliche cop-out, but its all about balance. Choosing how to balance is up to you though.

Personally I have a problem with this as well, but I still manage to work two jobs and I'm a full time graduate student. So if I put a paper off until the last minute because I was playing video games or doing jiu jitsu (my other hobby), I don't let myself feel bad about it.

What is wrong with living with family if you're in your 40's? People who say that fail to consider that it's our culture that says it's wrong. What if your parents don't mind you staying with them so long as you help around the house and help pay the bills with a part time job? I know for a fact this is what a lot of italian families do. They don't share the prejudice towards "basemant dwellers" as much as we do. In their culture family stick together.

Being born wealthy doesn't always make a difference, i was born to wealth and my parents are still nagging me about my hobby. I go California State University and i have a job at AdventureQuest Laser Tag but it's still not good enough to them.

I can definitely relate. John Lennon said "Time you enjoye wasting, is not wasted.", and I strongly believe in that. I'm well aware about how important a job is, but I truly and honestly think that it is wrong to take on a job for the pay. What's important is to find a job you enjoy, possibly even a hobby-related one. If it's a problem finding one, you (not you, OP, personally but people in general) can always find a job that's easy to get, and then keep on the search for a job you actually enjoy.

Of course, if you want a hobby-related job, the more hobbies you have, the easier it will be. For me, I have gaming, mice (or just pets), and reading, so I have a lot to choose from. I haven't found my favorite job either, but I have high hopes. I'm semi-well educated (well enough to get me a decent, serious job, but not well enough to earn a whole lot of money). Money is important, but the amount of money doesn't have to be.

Also, I agree with NordJitsu.

Well this might make me sound like a dike. But your parents will be there to bail you out if need be. I have friends born into wealth that know their parents will bail them out. Some are very hard working because they know their parents won't, but when push comes to shove, I am sure they will.

Now don't think I am picking on people with money cause I am not. Parents want to see their kids make it on their own, but they also want to help out when they can.

I agree completely, i would love to have a job that is related to my hobby, it would be a dream come true

That's ok, you are right, but some parents are different, some expect too much no matter how hard you try. I would rather make money with my hobby than take free money just because i was born into it, some people might call this crazy but some people are not in the position to understand.

The world is full of very successful people who figured out how to turn what they love into a way to make money. So it really just boils down into what a person's hobby is.. but even then chances are if you work hard enough you can make a living off of it. Was watching tv and saw a show called Heroes of Cosplay. People who took a hobby and turned it into a business. The internet also make turning hobbies into a business a hell of a lot easier than it used to be.

I'm a uni student. I have no responsiblities.

We always grew up poor and never with enough to pay bills every month, so my hobbies tend to take a back seat to working and school. I love drawing and getting better at it, but I haven't even used my drawing tablet in about six months, and I only made one drawing with it, anyway.

It gets depressing, especially 'cause I see someone really close to me is able to go to school full-time to pursue his hobby/passion and he actually has a chance at it from the looks of it, so he gets to work on it all day, especially because his parents believe in him so much that they helped him pay for his bills so he could study more. His family is well off and have always had more than enough money from what I've been told, so it's always a huge contrast from my own upbringing, haha.

Gets depressing, but my biggest goal in life is to not have to worry about money, so that takes the front seat right now. No way I could justify becoming an illustrator. I guess luckily one of my other hobbies is learning about computers, and I work in technical support, so I can research new things and things that will help me. Another one is learning languages, so I'm majoring in a very useful and employable language in my area and already basically know another highly marketable language, so there's a silver lining.

I wasn't taught money is everything, but I was taught to appreciate the value of money. And to learn to appreciate the value of money, you have to work and toil for it. Money is what makes the world work today. If you want something, you'll likely have to pay for it. Hobbies usually require a certain investment and so to be able to have those hobbies you're going to need money. Problem is, we're off work by the time we're 65, finally free to enjoy the spoils and pleasures of life. Except by that time you're old and weary, your hair left you years ago, your bladder laughs at you and half your body has left your control. The best part of our life then is spent 'wasting' on work so we might enjoy some hobbies to the side when we are still able-bodied. The trick is then to see if you can find employment that is manageable and perhaps even OK to do. If you can afford it, you might even want to work part-time so there's more time left to spend elsewhere.

I'm a professional artist--I know it sounds pretentious, but I say professional because I do that for a living and it ain't a hobby--anyways, I was lucky that my parents and family friends supported my aspirations to be an "artist"(I even got a scholarship from one wealthy friend of my mother) But I'm aware that in art history there's a laundry list of famous artist who weren't supported by their families. Michelangelo's father and uncles used to beat Michelangelo because they wanted him to be a banker and bring pride to their name. Van Gogh also had his family against him when he decided to become an artist after failing as an art dealer and ministry(his father was a pastor)

Another artist was Cezanne's. His father was a banker and was very disappointed when Cezanne decided to become an artist--even though he was supporting Cezanne financially for a while.

The list of artists is long and the stigma of choosing the profession of the "artist" is still prevalent today but a lesser extent. In fact, when I was an art student I went to my local convenient store and the owner at the cash register asked me what was I studying, and when I told him "art" he smiled. When I asked about what his daughter was studying, he said business. Because art, as he said, doesn't have good prospects; I don't want my daughter to be a "starving artist", he said.