The times when I've felt that those were the only two choices, it's always turned out that there were others that I was refusing to look at because I was automatically dismissing them as unthinkable. "Leave school?! But then I'll have to work at something dumb that I hate, and my parents will be able to say 'I told you so!' for ever and ever! Switch to a different major?! But this is what I'm supposed to be studying, and everything I like better seems so unscientific and frivolous!" In that example, I did change majors and finish school but -- surprise! -- I ended up working in a completely different field from the one I got my degree in. Also to my surprise, I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I'd expected to enjoy what I was originally studying for.

This is going to sound a bit off-topic but please bear with me. Around the time I was having those ^ conversations with myself, I read about an experiment that someone had tried to do with a young chimpanzee (I think it was). There was a treat, a banana maybe, suspended from the ceiling in plain sight but out of reach. The chimp was supposed to figure out a way to reach the treat by using "tools" -- stacking boxes or joining two sticks together or something complicated like that. Before the experimenter could even leave the room, the chimp grabbed him by the seat of the pants, dragged him over to the banana, jumped on his shoulders, and snagged the treat.