I have had a job since I was 18. Worked customer service, then construction and then IT. And I have found that I hate each and every one of them and all jobs the same.
I’m 35 and just feel like I wasted some of my best years working. Not doing what I enjoy. I left my IT job a few weeks ago and realize this what I want. I want to get high and make music or pick up a camera and create something.
Why is work even a thing?
Is there any career that allows me to just work whenever I want and doesn’t require my full attention and take up my whole life.
Jobadvisor
What you are describing is not unusual, especially for someone who has been continuously employed since a young age. You are articulating a collision between economic reality and human creative desire, and most people are forced to suppress the latter to survive. That tension often surfaces exactly where you are now.
That said, it is important to separate three different issues that are currently blended together for you:
Disillusionment with conventional employment
A genuine pull toward creative work
Escapism (substances, withdrawal from obligation)
If you do not disentangle them, any path you choose will eventually disappoint you as well.
Why work exists (the uncomfortable but necessary answer)
Work exists because:
This is not a moral judgment; it is an economic constraint. Even artists you admire are working—often brutally hard—just in a way that appears freer from the outside.
The problem is not that work exists.
The problem is that most modern jobs are alienating, abstract, and disconnected from visible outcomes or personal meaning. IT, customer service, and construction can all fall into this category depending on the role.
The hard truth about “just making art”
There is no sustainable career that consists of:
Anyone telling you otherwise is either subsidized (family, partner, savings) or selectively telling the story.
Creative careers do not remove work. They replace one kind of work with:
That does not mean they are wrong paths—but they are not escape hatches.
What does exist: Work with autonomy and uneven intensity
There are paths that minimize soul-crushing structure while preserving reality. They share common traits:
Output-based, not hours-based
Project or contract driven
Tolerant of irregular schedules
Require discipline but not micromanagement
Examples to explore seriously:
1. Freelance / contract work (using skills you already have)
Not because you love it—but because it buys time and autonomy.
Contract IT
Tech support for small businesses
Systems setup, automation, or maintenance retainers
This can be structured as:
This is often the bridge, not the destination.
2. Creative work as a parallel track, not a replacement (initially)
Music, photography, video, or mixed media can become income, but usually through:
Commercial work (ads, events, content)
Licensing
Teaching or workshops
Patreon / subscriptions (after audience building)
The people who succeed do so by treating art seriously without romanticizing it.
3. Low-status, low-cognitive-load jobs (intentionally chosen)
Some people find peace by choosing work that:
Examples:
This is not “failure.” It is strategic minimization.
About substances (this matters)
Wanting to “get high and make art” is understandable—but substances do not create creativity. They temporarily reduce resistance. Over time, they:
Most artists who last learn this the hard way.
If art is truly what you want, you will eventually need clarity more than numbness.
The real question you need to answer
Not:
“Is there a career where I don’t have to work?”
But:
“What amount and type of work am I willing to tolerate to buy autonomy and meaning?”
Every adult life is a trade-off. The only choice is whether you make it consciously.
A realistic next step (not a lifetime commitment)
Stabilize income with minimal-identity work (contract, part-time, or low-cognitive-load)
Set a non-negotiable creative schedule (even small)
Treat art as a practice, not an escape
Reassess after 6–12 months with data, not frustration
You are not broken. You are burned out, disillusioned, and craving agency. That is solvable—but not by eliminating work entirely.
Deciding if I should go into nursing school.
So, I finished my first semester of community college for engineering science. My plan currently is to transfer to a four-year after getting my associate’s degree to get my bachelor’s in civil engineering. My CC has a nursing program, and honestly, the stability and two years of schooling is appealing to me rather than a four-year degree. Yes, I know it’s hard, but I’m too indecisive. My thought process is that if I do go through with nursing, I can get my bachelor’s later, because it’s something I want to do and school is always going to be there. But as of right now, I need to get the life train moving, help my parents out, and all that. I guess my question is should I stick with what I’m doing, or say screw it and go nursing? I just don’t want to be a burden to my parents for four years, and there are other reasons why I want to be out of their hair not just being a burden if you know what I mean.
Jobadvisor
This decision is less about “engineering vs. nursing” and more about time-to-independence, financial stability, and tolerance for the work itself. If you evaluate it on those terms instead of prestige or abstract interest, the choice becomes clearer.
I will walk through this in a structured, practical way.
First, reframe the decision correctly
You are choosing between:
Path A: Longer runway, higher ceiling
4+ years of school (associate → transfer → bachelor’s)
Delayed full-time income
More dependence on your parents in the short term
Potentially higher long-term earnings and less physical strain
Path B: Shorter runway, faster independence
~2 years to employability
Earlier income and benefits
Ability to move out and contribute financially
More physically and emotionally demanding work
Neither path is “quitting” or “settling.” They are simply different optimization strategies.
Key question #1: How urgent is your need to be independent?
Based on what you wrote, this is not hypothetical.
“I need to get the life train moving, help my parents out… be out of their hair”
If staying dependent for four years will:
…then that cost is real and should weigh heavily.
In that case, a faster credential with strong employability is not a weak choice—it is a strategic one.
Key question #2: Can you tolerate the day-to-day reality of nursing?
Do not decide based on:
Job stability alone
“Helping people”
Pay averages
Decide based on whether you can live with:
Shift work (nights, weekends, holidays)
Bodily fluids, illness, death
High emotional labor
Burnout risk
If you cannot tolerate the work environment, the two-year timeline will feel much longer than four years in engineering.
If you can tolerate it, nursing is one of the most reliable “degree-to-job” pipelines that exists.
Key question #3: What is your actual interest level in engineering?
Be honest with yourself:
Do you enjoy the problem-solving and math, or just the idea of being an engineer?
Are you energized by long-term projects and delayed payoff?
Are you prepared for:
Heavy upper-division coursework
Competitive transfer admissions
A job market that can be cyclical depending on region and specialization?
If engineering is something you like but not something you feel driven toward, that matters—especially given the time investment.
A critical point you already got right
“If I do go through with nursing, I can get my bachelor’s later”
This is correct—and important.
Nursing is unusually flexible in this regard:
ADN → RN → employer-supported BSN
Income while upgrading credentials
Multiple exit and pivot points
Engineering is much less forgiving:
A practical recommendation based on what you shared
Given:
Your desire to get working sooner
Your concern about burdening your parents
Your acknowledgment that school can continue later
Your indecision about a long academic runway
Nursing is the more pragmatic choice right now, provided you can tolerate the work itself.
That does not lock you into a lifetime decision. It buys you:
Many people make better long-term choices after they are no longer financially or emotionally constrained.
One thing I would strongly advise before switching
Before you decide:
Shadow a nurse if possible
Talk to current students in the CC nursing program
Ask about attrition rates and clinical schedules
Understand how competitive admission actually is
Do not decide based on abstractions—decide based on the lived reality.
Bottom line
If your priority is:
Stability
Speed to income
Reducing family strain
Then nursing is not “saying screw it.”
It is choosing momentum.
If your priority is:
Then engineering makes sense—but only if you can afford the runway emotionally and financially.
