Need advice

[c130]

It's pre-university jitters, I suppose. I've been going to college doing a portfolio preparation course so I could get into art school after summer, but now I really really really don't want to go. The main reason I've been doing it is because I suck at everything else academic (and since art was the only subject other than English I enjoyed at school it seemed like the logical progression), but doing art in an educational environment is just pulling all my enjoyment out of it. When I'm pressured into doing art, I just produce crap work and it frustrates me, and when I'm frustrated I produce even worse art or grind to a halt altogether. Since I started this portfolio course I haven't produced any artwork of my own at home because it's so mentally exhausting trying to come up with ideas there.

So I've been checking out other options... possibly next year I could just take a break from fulltime education by doing a few small part-time leisure courses at the college that I've been interested in trying for a while, like learning tai chi and first aid, and I could find a job. Or, I could go and do the gasfitting course that my dad did, and get work doing gas boiler maintenance. That wouldn't be draining my creative energy, though it might be a bit boring (I can handle boringness better than creative vampirism though), and I'm really quite good at problem solving, which would be a big plus there. My parents have been suggesting this one a few times as a method of supporting myself financially through uni, as boiler maintenance apparently pays quite well.

One thing that's really caught my eye in the past few months is body piercing. That would let me work creatively without crushing my will to live. I know it's extremely hard to get into the industry, although I do have a couple of connections that I could build up in hopes of getting apprenticed, and I know what short courses I can take to further my goal. But I know my parents would be pretty grossed out by this idea, and probably won't support it.

So anyway. I haven't spoken to my parents about this yet, though I'll probably talk to my lecturers at college tomorrow to let them know I don't really want to go on to uni afterwards...

Can you folk who've been through all this before tell me if I'm being really bloody stupid, and I should just pull through the four years at uni, or should I go with my instincts and try and do something else?

Hell. If all else fails, I can go join the army.

[bleedingheart344]

Well, my advice to you is that since you hate being forced to create art and stuff, keep it a leisure activity, and I would do whatever caught my interest. I apologize for not being of much help, but I try to do what I can.

[Drake Dun]

If you're already part-way through university, and especially if you're not paying for it yourself, my strong advice is to just change majors and graduate and then go do something random you want to do. That little piece of paper holds tremendous power in society. For example, I would not be in Japan right now if I hadn't graduated university. I wouldn't have been able to get a visa.

Drake

[MollyMac]

And bare minimum, a degree is a paper stating how long you can put up with something

Graduate in something tolerable or at least marketable, and then take your new time and income to sort it out.

[Momento Mori]

I agree with everyone else so far. Take something you like, especially if you aren't paying or aren't paying much for it. Don't waste your parents' money, though.

One of my daughters sucks at computer repair. She is 100% right brained. Proves she's adopted. She spends her school daze drawing people with their flesh hanging from their faces, proving that while she isn't of my seed, she IS my kid. She's going to an art camp this summer and then I am going to have her apprentice at the tattoo parlor in our mall. She could do her art and not screw around with computers, at which she sucks.

The boiler mechanic is a good gig also. I personally hate computers, it is my job. I worked on mine for the first time two days ago, I build them to be maintenance free for selfish reasons! I'd rather be writing....