Reconcile Yourself Sucka!

I'm a bit earthy. I've been known to lay on the grass at my college campus and study and do work. I play in sprinklers (especially now that my hair's natural and water isn't considered cryptonite) and I blow bubbles (don't judge me :P ). I'm also very analytical. I make lists, I study chapters a day and write copious notes about everything.

I sometimes find it hard to reconcile the two very different parts of me. I was that kid in pre-k who, when asked what I wanted to be, I said "a happy mommy." Apparently that was wrong, and over time I learned to say the right acceptable answers of 'teacher', 'editor', and more recently 'I have no idea'. If I could spend my whole life doing anything it would be listening to music, writing, and eating, but what career can I make of that, especially with the economy the way it is?

Nobody thinks kids my age are paying attention to the politics and economics of life, but the truth is, most of us are, and all of us who are are terrified. We've been told our whole lives that getting a degree is the way to succeed in life, but now, there are people with doctorates and masters on the street with sandwich boards asking for jobs. I hear the questions all the time; those, who do you think you are/what do you think life is questions. Who am I to think that what I want has any merit out there? That a job that speaks to me is just going to leap out and be because I want it to?

To that I always say I'm Tes, and I'm an idealist; if it doesn't exist now, I'm going to have to make it exist not only for me, but those who think like me. I came up with an idea for quick money that I'm actually shopping around my school for; cheap tech support. You ever go to Geek Squad and they talk you up about needing this and that to fix your laptop? Ever get really upset when you go home or call your techy friend and they fix it for you in five minutes? The plan is charge a small fee for a diagnostic which really only takes a few minutes, then charge another small fee to fix it (when I say small I mean low double digits not low triple digits and that's saying something). I have to recruit actual tech people because what I do is pseudo-tech; I research what the problem is, and find ways around it to fix it. The tech people can do the hardware issues and charge what they need to and get it done. Sounds like a plan right?

But tech isn't what I enjoy, it's just what I'm good at. But like reconciling those two parts of me, I have to reconcile what I enjoy and what will make me money as that's what adulthood is about. I can still achieve that child-like aspiration of "happy mommy" while doing a tech job that I'm good at, and a side English/music/food job that I love. Will it be difficult? Hell, it's difficult now and I'm in the infancy stages. But will it be worth it? Most definitely.

How do you reconcile the parts of you to make one person, or have you done that? Is it viable to hold onto the same childish dreams you had but adapt them for the real world? Does ingenuity pwn know-how or are both necessary to be successful at what you do?