glamerdork

I recently graduated college and am in the process of trying to -- find myself-- if you want to call it that. I'm really looking for a career that will fullfill me- one that will truely make me excited about living the rest of my life. However, right now I feel like I'm going to get trapped in the pr/marketing field, which is something I'm fairly good at, but just can't feel passionate about. I'm a creative person at heart, always have been into art, theatre and writing, but just can't seem to find the courage to go off and attempt making a living in a creative field. So I do the next best thing, which is work in marketing for a creative non-profit, but while I love the people I work with and am learning a lot, that's just not what I want to spend my life doing. What do I want to spend my life doing? Well, I'd love to be a theatre director... or maybe a photojournalist or a fashion photographer. But the problem is-- well, the two problems are-- I'm lacking experience and connections. I'm also moving to a whole new city in a few months for a year-long marketing internship. There are many reasons I'm making this huge move to the other coast, and I'm really excited about it- but I'm afraid to give up this year to marketing when I know it's not what I want to do with my life. Then again, I know I'm young and I have plenty of time to figure it all out-- but a year of my life is still something that has some value, right? Namely, I just want to figure out how to get over my fears and just get out there and do what I want to do... to go out and buy some good digital camera equipment so I can start putting together a portfolio of quality images. But in the end, I'm just afraid that I wouldn't be able to make a living that way. It almost seems that doing an ordinary day job which will... hopefully... eventually pay somewhat decently, will allow me to keep at my creative pursuits from an amateur status. If I work in marketing, maybe one day I'll be able to afford a nice Cannon Digital SLR without dipping into my savings, and will have the days off and extra dough to travel the world and take pictures for "fun." I'd also be able to afford paint and canvas material and outside art classes. But now that I'm realizing a 9-6 job takes up most of ones life, it feels like something that doesn't inspire me is swallowing my life whole-- and this terrifies me. I realize I'm very lucky to be able to even have such a job, and that plenty of people working in factories and the like would love to have the opportunity to sit behind a computer all day and be able to support themselves. But... that doesn't make me happy.

So the reason I'm posting here... is that I'm hoping some of you wise individuals on SG of any age will be able to help point me in the right direction. What have you learned in your life? Do you have any advice for me?