School & My Future

Since being accepted to IADT Las Vegas I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do with my life and wondering if I really want to go to school for fashion design and if I want to pursue that as a career. Currently I'm kind of leaning toward no, or at least not right now. I love fashion design and the creativity and independence that it gives me but I don't want to work under someone for the rest of my life and I don't want to sew every single day. I think that IADT has a lot to offer and they have fantastic classes that I would love to take just to learn how to do certain things but I don't think I want to spend $50,000 for two years of school for something that I probably won't use.

So, now I am thinking about other options available. I have always loved animals and am wondering about going into zoology and becoming a zoo keeper. In the past I had thought about becoming a veterinarian but I think that being a zoo keeper would be more rewarding in that you are able to establish relationships with the animals and spend time with and study them more. Whereas if I were a vet I would only see animals when it's time for shots/checkups or when something is wrong and that doesn't sound very rewarding to me. However vets make tens of thousands dollars more a year. A zoo keeper might make up to $30,000 a year where a vet would typically start out making $56,000 a year. That is a huge difference but I'm not too concerned about the money. I would rather do something I love than something that makes me rich.

If I switch to zoology I have some problems that I will have to work with. 1st being that my associates degree is going to be in fine arts so I won't have the required math and science prerequisites so I'll have to go back and take those classes. 2nd is that there isn't a school in Salt Lake that has zoology classes so I'll still have to look elsewhere for education (I believe that BYU and WSU have classes though but they would require hour + commutes). 3rd is commitment. I have changed my career plans multiple times during my college career (which is why it's taken me 4 years to get my associates degree even though I've taken classes every single semester). After I spend a year in school am I still going to want to do it? 4th telling AIDT that I don't want to go less than two weeks after being admitted.

I've also thought about becoming a home ec teacher so that I can teach sewing during the day and go to school to explore my options at night. The only problem with that is that I need a bachelors degree to be a teacher so that is still two more years of school.

I don't know what to do with myself. I feel like I'm drifting and not getting anywhere in life. I would like to find something that I absolutely love and go with that but I'm having a hard time finding something I am passionate about. I don't understand how some people just know what they want to do with their lives. How do you know? I've never just known. Maybe I have too many interests.