At a Crossroads, and unsure

[JanusthePhoenix]

I have a focus on what is most pragmatic. I'm not a dreamy-eyed youth anymore. I need to spend my time building up my value to a prospective employer, rather than chasing dreams.

I agree with half of that. Pragmatism is good, unless you're being pragmatic about the wrong thing. I have a feeling your attitude is too passive. You can't just walk into a firm with a degree and receive a job anymore. Even if that still was the case, it wouldn't last very long. Then what? Do it again, go find another job just for the money that you really have no passion for whatsoever, only for them to lay you off too? If you are doing what you really love, your whole being will be more involved in it. You will perform better and more creatively, because you will WANT to be doing it. Everything you do in the work that you love will be with more purpose and energy than with something you would be doing just for the money. The ultimate goal is to learn everything about the field, over years, (which will be much easier if you actually care about it...I get the impression you couldn't care less about aircraft maintenance) and eventually go into it for yourself.

Both in popular books and even in my textbooks, the experts agree that the old model of depending on a steady employer is dissolving. Business models are becoming more fluid and modular, and that includes the employees. Some predict that we are moving towards a world with very few employees and primarily free agents doing the work. That means you can't depend on landing a good job once and then relaxing, only doing well enough not to get fired; you have to make yourself your own brand, your own little freelance enterprise. Big Widgets Corp won't be there to pay your health plan and pension. Entrepreneurship made the US what it is, and from where I am sitting I see that our society has forgotten that and become too reliant on big corporations for stable livelihood.

Right now you are in a great position to be aggressive with your life plans and start yourself on a path you want to be on. Most people don't have that luxury, especially in such a deep recession. I suggest you take advantage of it. That way you will be worlds ahead of the rest of the teeming masses who still haven't figured out that the job market of 30 years ago is gone forever.

Then again, what do I know? I'm just a doe-eyed dreamer.

Edit: typos.

[JanusthePhoenix]

My husbands favorite is
'Seven years of college down the drain'

Reminds me of "Night at the Roxbury".

"How long have we been friends?"
"*phew* All seven years of high school, at least." hilarious

[TMW2010]

That is a tough question to answer. Not because I don't know, it's because I know what I'd love to do, but I have a focus on what is most pragmatic. I'm not a dreamy-eyed youth anymore. I need to spend my time building up my value to a prospective employer, rather than chasing dreams.

I think giving up on dreams is part of growing up...
(I wanted to be a cartoonist) Shadowcross on deviantART

One of the people I know actually has made a business of selling their artwork on EBay & at comic cons. They also market themselves to the big companies (WotC, and such) where they might get commissioned to do a print for a trading card or such. This is something you might be able to look into for yourself while doing the whole school thing. Who knows, you might get a piece of art sold, make a contact, and have a career take off.

Never stop dreaming, but you also have to keep one eye on the road. At the least, doing what you like in your spare time (and possibily making a few bucks at it) tempers out the mundane parts of work & school.