Hello everyone, apologies in advance for the length of the message.
My name is Miguel, I am currently about 5 months away from finishing my bachelors in Psychology. I already have an associate of science in medical assisting. I should also mention that I am a book cover designer, it is important to my issue. I am very conflicted as to what I should career I should choose. I know that many people have this problem. However, my problem comes with my own mental stability or health. I had an extremely tough upbringing. We are talking about dealing with physical and sexual abuse, to being extremely poor, to being threatened to death by my own brother. I could sit here and type everything that happened to me but it is just too long. Point is, I am still trying to recover from all of this, and it isn’t easy. I have a stable home now and a loving partner by my side.
Here is where the problem comes. I know that, in order to become a psychologist, one needs to be strong enough to be able to handle others problems. I know the commitment it takes to succeed in this career. I just don’t know if I am strong enough, mentally, to do this job. I don’t want it to be where, 20 years from now I am working and I am miserable with my choice. I am also afraid that it will impact my family members, because I know that we are all in it. I don’t want to sound too proud of myself, but I am good at psychology. I volunteer at a website for immediate help to people in psychological distress. I also had a mentor, a doctor in psychology at my university, who said she saw something special in me and wanted to mentor me because I was good at this.
This is where I am torn. My boyfriend has a bachelor of arts in graphic design. He is making very good money. It is so sad that a bachelors won’t get you nowhere near the amount he is making. To get back to the point though, he is teaching me graphic design. And I am also pretty good at it. I create book covers, I built my own website, I am doing really good. I even started to make some money as a freelancer. I also get to stay at home with him because he works remote. I am currently not working, so he supports me at the moment. I am so afraid that this life will go away because of my career choice. I love my life with him. However, I know that if I choose psychology, we might have a lot of problems because of the stress and commitment and all that.
I am so torn as to what I should do. On one side, the hard option, psychology (which, I love, it is my passion and I know it.) And on the other side, graphic design, which is easy, but I don’t love it as much as I do psychology. I am afraid to choose graphic design and then end up regretting it later. I should mention this, and if any of you have psychological training, you will know where I am getting at. I tend to switch careers very fast. I started in criminal justice, didn’t think I was good enough so I quit. Then I went into medicine, finished my *** and then quit because I didn’t think I was good enough either. Here I am now in psychology, about to finish, and I want to give up, not because I think I’m not good enough, but I think I’m not strong. What if this happens again with design? I know this is a lot to take in. And if any of you have advice for me, I will greatly appreciate it. Thanks everyone in advance.
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