Should I follow my dreams, or go on the straight and narrow?
I'm tied between following my dreams or walking a much more straight and narrow path.
My dream is to be a successful actor, I plan to take an English degree while studying drama and then move to a city where I can teach English and try and get auditions at the same time.
A much more straight and narrow path is to pursue law, I'll do as well as I can in my exams, get relevant experience, get a good degree and go from there in to the field of law.
I need some serious advice, from people who've had the experience and have been through the same kinds of decisions, or know people who have.
I'm 17 and finishing As, I know I have time to decide, but my personality is such that it would be better to make a good decision now, instead of deciding when I have bigger complications.
My dream is to be a successful actor, I plan to take an English degree while studying drama and then move to a city where I can teach English and try and get auditions at the same time.
A much more straight and narrow path is to pursue law, I'll do as well as I can in my exams, get relevant experience, get a good degree and go from there in to the field of law.
I need some serious advice, from people who've had the experience and have been through the same kinds of decisions, or know people who have.
I'm 17 and finishing As, I know I have time to decide, but my personality is such that it would be better to make a good decision now, instead of deciding when I have bigger complications.
General advice for life: always follow your dreams. You only have one shot at life, so you should cherish every second of it. Bit difficult to do that if you're stuck in a job you're not passionate about.
Besides, law is a flexible career to get into and English is a great degree for it. If after doing your English degree you realise being an actor isn't going to work, you can convert to law quite easily
Besides, law is a flexible career to get into and English is a great degree for it. If after doing your English degree you realise being an actor isn't going to work, you can convert to law quite easily
Reach up for the stars
Follow your dreams. All you have to do is to make sure that you can have the basic skills to get a job which will cover your basic needs, rent/food/bills. If I were you, I'd go down the english route, and try that way. At Uni, I'm sure you will have plenty of opportunity in which to try and make connections in acting through societies and lecturers/tutors. Don't do Law just cos you think its a stable degree kind of thing. And as someone else mentioned previously, you can convert to it if you decide you don't want to go into acting anymore.
Original post by mgarta11
I'm tied between following my dreams or walking a much more straight and narrow path.
My dream is to be a successful actor, I plan to take an English degree while studying drama and then move to a city where I can teach English and try and get auditions at the same time.
A much more straight and narrow path is to pursue law, I'll do as well as I can in my exams, get relevant experience, get a good degree and go from there in to the field of law.
I need some serious advice, from people who've had the experience and have been through the same kinds of decisions, or know people who have.
I'm 17 and finishing As, I know I have time to decide, but my personality is such that it would be better to make a good decision now, instead of deciding when I have bigger complications.
My dream is to be a successful actor, I plan to take an English degree while studying drama and then move to a city where I can teach English and try and get auditions at the same time.
A much more straight and narrow path is to pursue law, I'll do as well as I can in my exams, get relevant experience, get a good degree and go from there in to the field of law.
I need some serious advice, from people who've had the experience and have been through the same kinds of decisions, or know people who have.
I'm 17 and finishing As, I know I have time to decide, but my personality is such that it would be better to make a good decision now, instead of deciding when I have bigger complications.
What a silly question to ask an inane forum. You won't listen to people here. Heck, you've probably already made up your own mind.
I hate people who think it's either 'this' or 'that'.
You can do both, my friend is doing a law degree and hopes to become an actor, Gerard Butler was a solicitor. You can pursue your dreams outside your degree in your spare time, it will be hard but you can do both.
Many of my friends are entrepreneurs and could easily give up their degrees to chase their businesses but they'd rather just do both.
Don't go on the typical 'I'm going to be famous, drop everything and become a struggling artist route' just do both. It will be hard but in this economic climate you can't go making big risks and dropping one or the other you make BOTH work till one is 100% better than the other.
I'm going to UCL to do Law in September and also have other career dreams outside Law but i'd never just drop out or not go until I was sure through my degree I will do both.
You can do both, my friend is doing a law degree and hopes to become an actor, Gerard Butler was a solicitor. You can pursue your dreams outside your degree in your spare time, it will be hard but you can do both.
Many of my friends are entrepreneurs and could easily give up their degrees to chase their businesses but they'd rather just do both.
Don't go on the typical 'I'm going to be famous, drop everything and become a struggling artist route' just do both. It will be hard but in this economic climate you can't go making big risks and dropping one or the other you make BOTH work till one is 100% better than the other.
I'm going to UCL to do Law in September and also have other career dreams outside Law but i'd never just drop out or not go until I was sure through my degree I will do both.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by PortiaLovesMcqueen
I hate people who think it's either 'this' or 'that'.
You can do both, my friend is doing a law degree and hopes to become an actor, Gerald Butler was a solicitor. You can pursue your dreams outside your degree in your spare time, it will be hard but you can do both.
Many of my friends are entrepreneurs and could easily give up their degrees to chase their businesses but they'd rather just do both.
Don't go on the typical 'I'm going to be famous, drop everything and become a struggling artist route' just do both. It will be hard but in this economic climate you can't go making big risks and dropping one or the other you make BOTH work till one is 100% better than the other.
I'm going to UCL to do Law in September and also have other career dreams outside Law but i'd never just drop out or not go until I was sure through my degree I will do both.
You can do both, my friend is doing a law degree and hopes to become an actor, Gerald Butler was a solicitor. You can pursue your dreams outside your degree in your spare time, it will be hard but you can do both.
Many of my friends are entrepreneurs and could easily give up their degrees to chase their businesses but they'd rather just do both.
Don't go on the typical 'I'm going to be famous, drop everything and become a struggling artist route' just do both. It will be hard but in this economic climate you can't go making big risks and dropping one or the other you make BOTH work till one is 100% better than the other.
I'm going to UCL to do Law in September and also have other career dreams outside Law but i'd never just drop out or not go until I was sure through my degree I will do both.
I agree with this.
I hate to be the cynical bitch, but acting is bloody tough to get into. It's very easy for people on TSR to go, "follow your dreams!" and feel like they're helping you, because it's not their problem if things go badly for you and they'll never find out about it anyway.
You need to think seriously about how much money and security matter to you - and be realistic. I have a friend who was always brilliant at acting, but ended up going into digital arts/brand management and doing amateur dramatics on the side. I used to think it was a bit sad that she hadn't gone for it and chased the dream, but she has told me since how glad she is that she didn't drop everything for acting. While doing amateur theatre in London as a student she came across a LOT of failed actors who were constantly scrabbling for any work they could find to support themselves before their next audition - and if they got a role, they had to quit their job for it and find something new after the show was over. [So yeah, you can teach English fine and dandy, but for every role you get you will have to leave your day job.] This is, FAR more often than not, the reality. My friend said she would hate to be one of these people. A guy she went out with for a while was about thirty and still taking odd jobs to support himself. It's very unlikely he will ever make it big, and how can he hope to find a stable job and properly support a family if he ever wants to? Also, my friend said she hated the "luvvies" in the world of acting, even at amateur level. However much she loved acting, the culture around it (a lot of falseness, I gathered) put her off. At the moment she doesn't have a lot of time for acting, and she's sad about it, but she can always do more of it later on. Plus, she still really enjoys the career path she has chosen, and has a proper job with a good salary.
I'm not telling you to forget about it, but think very, very cautiously about the reality of being a struggling actor. You don't only need talent, you don't only need looks, you need an absolute shedload of luck to make it in that industry. My personal opinion is that you should do a subject that interests you at uni (probably English?) and get very, very much involved with the drama scene there as there will be tons of opportunities to tour in productions (at Durham they did a tour of the Ivy League unis with a Shakespeare play) and possibly even network. You can always take a gap year after uni to try your luck with auditions and all that, and English is a fine degree for keeping your options open. No reason you couldn't get into law after that - it would take longer, but I'm sure it would be worth it.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by PortiaLovesMcqueen
You can do both, my friend is doing a law degree and hopes to become an actor, Gerald Butler was a solicitor.
You can do both, my friend is doing a law degree and hopes to become an actor, Gerald Butler was a solicitor.
I think you mean Gerard Butler.
Original post by Jelkin
x
Simply very good advice.
Follow your dreams! Like someone else said, this life is the only one you're going to get, might as well have a blast and do something you enjoy!
I just had this epiphany recently, I was absolutely miserable doing med and trying to make medicine work when it really didn't mesh with who I am or what I actually enjoy. I dropped that and am doing anthropology and languages now and will get to travel the world, meet incredible people and enjoy my life a hell of a lot more than I would've if I stuck with medicine. It's a very liberating feeling when you start doing things for the sake of your happiness instead of a 'guaranteed' future.
Good luck OP!
I just had this epiphany recently, I was absolutely miserable doing med and trying to make medicine work when it really didn't mesh with who I am or what I actually enjoy. I dropped that and am doing anthropology and languages now and will get to travel the world, meet incredible people and enjoy my life a hell of a lot more than I would've if I stuck with medicine. It's a very liberating feeling when you start doing things for the sake of your happiness instead of a 'guaranteed' future.
Good luck OP!
Original post by kingkev
I think you mean Gerard Butler.
Hey,
Here's your gold star.
Hope you feel wonderful now.
Original post by PortiaLovesMcqueen
Hey,
Here's your gold star.
Hope you feel wonderful now.
Here's your gold star.
Hope you feel wonderful now.
Thank you. I'm wearing it on my jumper around uni, I'm getting weird looks but oh well.
Original post by sarahtownsend
Follow your dreams! Like someone else said, this life is the only one you're going to get, might as well have a blast and do something you enjoy!
I just had this epiphany recently, I was absolutely miserable doing med and trying to make medicine work when it really didn't mesh with who I am or what I actually enjoy. I dropped that and am doing anthropology and languages now and will get to travel the world, meet incredible people and enjoy my life a hell of a lot more than I would've if I stuck with medicine. It's a very liberating feeling when you start doing things for the sake of your happiness instead of a 'guaranteed' future.
Good luck OP!
I just had this epiphany recently, I was absolutely miserable doing med and trying to make medicine work when it really didn't mesh with who I am or what I actually enjoy. I dropped that and am doing anthropology and languages now and will get to travel the world, meet incredible people and enjoy my life a hell of a lot more than I would've if I stuck with medicine. It's a very liberating feeling when you start doing things for the sake of your happiness instead of a 'guaranteed' future.
Good luck OP!
Thats a big step to take regardless of the degree you dropped being medicine, it takes a lot of guts to trust what you are telling yourself. I wish you every success
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