well, this may come across as more of a rant to some of you, but its a problem thats starting to really annoy me: I have no idea what it is i want to do in life. i had always taken it for granted that i would go to college and take some 3d animation courses, or some sort of graphic design course, but lately (last few months) i havn’t had the will to start blender and make anything. i tried it just the other night and it felt like work, i wasnt enjoyinh it like i used to. i also enjoy playing my guitar (who doesnt), but i can go months on end without caring about playing my guitar. i think the problem may lie in my attention span or something, i have no problems paying attention in class and whatnot, but whatever interests i pick up i seem to always lose my interest in them. first there was programming, then 3d, then my guitar, and every computer game i play i put down in about 2-4 months. and by the way, im 16 and a male if thats of any consequence.
so is this perfectly normal? or do i have some sort of ADD or something?
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I tend to do different things for different parts of the year. For instance I only ever feel the urge to Blend during the warmer months, and during winter I barely think about Blending. Luckily summer is coming a long.
Maybe the same sort of thing is happening to you.
Don’t worry though, you’ll find something to settle with eventually, don’t rush yourself.
i think it happens to almost everyone. it happens to me too. Before entering university, i thought i’d enter an art institute to do BA in Fine Arts… then i thought computers are cool… so i got into BS in Computer Science… and now that 1 yr has passed with computers… i m wondering how great it wud hav been if i had admitted into a flight training school and this age 16 is the age of ‘curiosity’ in which u tend to naturally explore different things until you find THE thing that fits you the best…
Listen carefully now. Very important. Choose someting that you think would be easy to work with. If you choose someting you cant handle than you will be in the same situation in 7 years time. Like me.
This is happening in me too. I always assumed my path would be laid out for me in future. That the route to follow would always be obvious. However once I left university and joined “the real world”, I’ve found myself to be lost. I’ve no idea what I want to achieve in life, or what path to choose now. I know I have the potential in me to excel in what I choose to focus on, but I just can’t find that thing…
I have a simple job at the moment which is about as interesting and inspiring as watching paint dry, but it’s allowing me to save a lot of money for the future. I definately need to move on at some point though. I can’t see myself doing this for the rest of my life.
The answer I guess would be to go back to your roots. What makes you as a person, what drives you. It usually comes back to the ultimate question…What is the meaning of life? Why are you here?
When I was really young, I wanted to be a farmer. Then came the art stage but I gave that up to go into maths and physics. I kept with that until 2nd year uni and switched maths for computer science.
Going into 4th year it hit me - comp sci + maths + physics + art (ignore the farmer stage) = Computer animation. So I tried to get into that area in a variety of ways after graduating but no go.
It’s a tough industry because even people over at CGTalk are unemployed. And y’know, you sometimes think that you can rely on family for support but sooner or later you find that they just care about money like everybody else and constantly prod you to just do anything because who cares what you do as long as you make a living at it.
So nowadays, I while away my life complaining about the whole damn system on Elysiun wondering if this world is somewhere I still want to be.
I still use Blender quite a lot but I don’t have the ambition to finish any projects because I’ve already finished projects before and it’s got me nowhere so why bother?
But one thing I will say is don’t take it easy. People say to you that you’re only young so you’ve got plenty of time to decide. But you can never start too early. I tried to do too many things at once so I would always have something to fall back on but although it gives you more of a safety net, you run the risk of becoming a jack of all trades, master of none. Then when you look for work, you wil lack key skills.
I think the solution is to look at all the available careers there are and see what is closest to what you enjoy doing. Then see what is required and focus on meeting the requirements for the job. I know the decision is tough because it needs commitment but that’s why you need to start now.
The only other alternative is to make a career if you don’t find one. One I could think of is Hugh Hefner. He probably didn’t go into the local jobcentre and see an ad for lecherous man wanted to stay in a big mansion and ogle beatuiful women with a million dollar salary. He made his life turn out the way he wanted. That’s sometimes the toughest route to take if you don’t make it though and probably the most competitive.
I think the most important quality is the will to succeed. If you have that then you should make something of yourself no matter what route you take.
Well thats what Im gunna do so far, but im only 15. Flight training is expensive though… to be able to fly with the airlines its 40,000 U.S. dollars you have to shell out. =(… I think im gunna go to an aviation college, and leanr to fly that way.
I only wish I knew I loved computers when I was 16. My real interest started when I was 22, Now that I am 28, and computers have been my serious focus for 4 years, I am marketable, and doing something I enjoy.
You are 16, there is a lot of things you are worrying about, and that need to be taken care of before deciding on a career. And believe me, work is work. Nothing in life comes easily. Work will always feel like work.
The only other alternative is to make a career if you don’t find one. One I could think of is Hugh Hefner. He probably didn’t go into the local jobcentre and see an ad for lecherous man wanted to stay in a big mansion and ogle beatuiful women with a million dollar salary. He made his life turn out the way he wanted. That’s sometimes the toughest route to take if you don’t make it though and probably the most competitive.
I like this quote. It makes a good point though, I have been taking my own path in life for a while now, heeding the advice of none and relying only on what I have observed, and quitting jobs that I feel are going nowhere. I have ended up in what I consider to be quite a comfortable position. I do wish I started in 3d graphics earlier, and soon I am going to go back to part time, survive on that and savings, and spend more time blending. I already have it planned out. Am I rich and famous? No, but I certainly am happy, because I feel I finally have a plan, and direction.
I think I’ll quote Lee Ioccoca (CEO of Chrysler), “Do one thing, and do it well.”
Could you give more details on what jobs you have had? I’m 23 and I have a computer science degree but every time I go for a job interview, there is always someone there with a couple of years work experience and I’m practically laughed out of the place.
Which jobs have you enjoyed the most and which were the easiest to get? Which ones paid the best and where did you find them? How did you apply for the positions etc.
I was considering doing freelance stuff but I’m not resourceful enough and I have no contacts. Oh yeah and I have no talent either :P.
Something like Sun Tan lotion applicator in Ibiza would be good but I haven’t come across it yet.
im same age as you and i had those feelings like last year…
the best thing to do is get a degree in something that doesnt have to do with arts. for ex. Com Sci
That way, you can get a nice deskjob and do whatever you want in your free time
I have had many interests in computers first programming, then flash, and now blender. None of them I have been terribly good at. Blender is so far my best bet. I wish I had games to play, but my computer is out of date and won’t run the newest games. I am sort of bored constantly. I think the reason I have given up on some things is because I get with it and I am happy with it no doubt, but then I realize my workings aren’t so special. Then, I go to learn something new, but BAM! I get smacked with that new thing and realize its going to be a lot of work to get the hang of that, so then I try it out, ask a few questions, wait for replies, and then either I have to ask so many questions I am about to go nuts, or I say “I’ll work on it tomorrow” and then I go off and forget about it. I am 15 years old, and I started modelling to maybe make games with my previously acquired programming skills. When I get bored of Blender I don’t have anything to fall back on to sort of motivate me or get me in a good mood, such as video games, that is when I really just sit around wondering what to do. I see that with modelling now I could sell my models on the internet in hopes of getting a new computer, but then again I have waited so long that it doesn’t seem realistic.
I think this is pretty common actually. I’ve found myself asking the same questions. Should i go do networking? Should i go do Graphics? Should i just forget about computers and do some traditional art? Or should i find something else to do. I think everyone asks themselves the same sort of questions. Imo thats what life is about, it sux, but it has its highlights. At least for me I’ll go through very long periods of no motivation, I end up trolling through the internet in my free time. Sure i pick up a lot of interesting information, but its pretty useless. Just try to focus on something, Thats the greatest challenge, and the greatest reward. When you focus on something, like say painting a picture… You may not have the drive naturally, you have to force yourself to do it wether you want to or not, you end up being twice rewarded. you get something done, and you can force yourself to be motivated.
Got news for you … thirty years down the road you’ll still find yourself wondering what you want to do when you grow up. And maybe by then you’ll find that you did some things just to pay the bills, some things that you wish-to-gawd you never had done %| and some things that you are immensely proud of.
One thing that I wish that I had learned much earlier is, learn how to sell … yourself. In order to do that, you first need to know how to act. (“Ingrid, fake it!” – Alfred Hitchcock’s acting advice to Ingrid Bergman.) And then, you need to know why your services are valuable, and to whom. Then it simply becomes a matter of persistence. And creativity… “thinking outside the box” as to who might possibly be interested in your services. I think that most people have utterly defeated themselves before the ever walk in to the interview. You have to go in there, projecting the confidence that you really don’t have, determined to enjoy the game whether you win it or lose it today. When you are selling, you simply must not allow yourself to “take it personally.” You’re never going to get rid of those butterflies, but you also don’t have to spend the rest of your life eating butterfly soup!
A lot of the stuff you say you want to do is grunt-work. A lot of animation work is grunt-work! Imagine the poor schleps fifty years ago who had to apply just the right dab of rouge to Snow White’s face, at exactly the right spot on thousands and thousands of pieces of plastic! Pure grunt-work… leads to pure magic. Or it might lead to a milk advertisement. You just never know.
Whatever you choose to do now, you won’t be doing it forever. You’re not going to be locked-in for the rest of your days, unless you choose to be. (And by the way, you will be considerably less locked-in if you systematically take every single one of those credit card applications that are flooding your mailbox and put them into the paper-shredder, unopened.) %| The day’s gonna come when you say, “Okay, been there, done that… now what else is there for me to do?”
and this age 16 is the age of ‘curiosity’ in which u tend to naturally explore different things until you find THE thing that fits you the best… 
