stay in college or follow my heart?

so I'm sort of in a dilemma.. and it's a big one..

so basically, I'm going to college right now for free, because of a football scholarship and it's the middle of my second year here, but I'm not sure if I want to stay. Do I want to get a degree? yes. But the obligation of playing football which honestly i have sadly lost my passion for is overwhelming. the drug tests, the mandatory meetings, and not really having the freedom that other students have to really enjoy the college experience.

I really want to transfer to a school on the west coast and chase my dreams.. but I don't know what I want to be.. I just want to ride the wave of life because I feel that somehow some way everything will work out. I wouldn't be able to afford college if it weren't for the scholarship so I'm kind of in a catch 22..

I'm taking things a day at a time and hoping that I will make the right decision in the end.

if anyone has been through a situation like this or just wants to be a supporter I'd really like to read your thoughts.

 

You can come out here and go to a community college first. They are pretty cheap. And than you can transfer to a university.
Or something like that

 

i mean, does it sound like such a bad idea to go to like a community college that specializes in a field that i want to go in ?

 

Welcome to adulthood. You actually have just become your parent as in you worry about the future and want one.

What freedoms do you not have under this scholarship that you want, other than rules. Those are the same type of rules at employers will have in the future.

Ever stop to consider that those you think are having way much more fun than you are, may in the long run not have the same opportunities that you may or might have if you follow through on your scholarship.

I am going to be a bit flip......take the scholarship and meet it and life head on after it is all said and one.

Or don't and have maybe not the same opportunities and in 10, 15, 20 years you can post back here and remind us how you could have, should have, did not and your life has not been the same as you blame it on that, rather than your own commitment to do something with your life.

Any move forward is better than none. Any choice made with a future in mind is better than walking blindly into someone just falling in to something.

Pick your passion and grab it and do not let go until you are there.

 

Thats about the best advice I could expect to see ! Thank you !

 

Stay where you are
"Dealing" with drug tests and shit now is really no issue compared to that of your future concerning debts and finances
I dropped out of school and I regret it every single day
It's only 4 years of your life, and you're almost half way there
Stick it out pleaseee don't make the same mistake others, including myself, made

 

i dunno y'all. Its not like you're advising him to stick it out in school, you're advising him to stick it out with football because it enables him to go to school for free. Football, in which injuries can occur, in which you can graduate with a college degree and no cartilage in your knees, etc etc....all that is fine if you're passionate about football. But I honestly don't think the OP should continue with football if he absolutely doesn't want to do it.

Student loans suck. If you're prepared to graduate school with no promise of a job and a shitload of student loans, then transfer schools and quit football. Look into grants too and other scholarships.

 

I would'nt like to take part in something i don't wan't to do, if i'm not giving it my best i'm not doing it...plain and simple. It's absolutely soul destroying feeling obligated into something and it usually results in a half arsed effort.

Think about it man and do what you feel is right, trust your intuition but don't act on impulse.

Whatever happens, things have a way of sorting their selves out

 

iamtigerpaw ..... after careful consideration, I think that the wisest advice so far has come from ChrisFromScotland and Meliai. I'm gonna give you some good food for thought, so listen up. It's been my experience that when you lost the passion for something you have been doing, you rarely get it back. But, you've got to ask yourself: is it actually the playing of the game of Football that you've lost your passion for, or is it the baggage that comes along with it that has come to affect the game in
such a negative way that the trade-off is no longer worth it? You know what I mean?
Like, do you actually get actively involved in playing the game very often; and do you
really enjoy participating in the game when you do so? Or, are you not afforded the opportunity to actively play that often? And, when and if you do participate in playing the game, is it something that you really dig doing? It seems to me that you have many aspects within your dilemma to consider; and it also strikes me that you do not have individuals in your immediate circle with whom you can discuss this with freely and without potential negative consequence.

A question: a critical consideration is this: what is it that you are majoring in? What
degree are you pursuing? And, if you were to see it through by staying where you are, and continuing to do what you are doing, when you do graduate, will you then have a
degree in a field of endeavor that would enable you to get a job doing what you would love to do? I know very little about what a football scholarship entitles you to, as
relating to what you are, or are not permitted to major in. That said, can you still do the football thing as a means to pay for the education; but perhaps change your major, if whatever it is you are currently majoring in is not to your liking?

It's okay not to be completely enamored with Football just because you have been given a scholarship to attend college because of your skill for the game. Just because you are good at something does not mean you have to participate in it, if you do not really like doing it. Meliai raised an extremely wise point regarding the high risk for sustaining severe injuries from playing Football - I can tell you that since I injured my
right knee years ago, it has never been right since then. It is a constant risk factor;
and as a result of injuring it the first time; it became very susceptible to re-injury because it was then weakened; and I have re-injured it, like, 6 times since then because it's never been quite right since the first injury. But, the flip side to that coin is, they supposedly do really good knee replacement surgery these days - I have actually spoken to two really old ladies who had knee replacements done at the age of 70 - and not only were the operations a success, but they both told me they're good as new!

Of paramount importance, though; is something else you said that I want to address.
You stated: "I really want to transfer to a school on the west coast and chase my dreams.. but I don't know what I want to be.." There is this older lady who travels around the country holding seminars to help counsel people who are in the exact situation you are in right now. Only, she focuses on middle-aged people; but I think if you applied her same theory while you are still very young, then you would waste none of your adult years like most middle-aged people have! What she advocates is this:

Think back to when you were a child, and recall what it was, that you used to dream about being, when you grew up. All children have in their minds, what it is that they
"want to be when they grow up." This lady (her name is Barbara Sher) insists that whatever it is we dream about being when we are kids - is our natural calling - that's why we think of it - that's why it occurs to us naturally. Me - I wanted to be an actress when I grew up. I signed up for Drama in High School, and excelled at it.
Every part I tried out for, I got; and was completely immersed in it. In our senior class play, I got the exact part I tried out for, and at opening night, strangers came back stage after the performance and complimented me. When I graduated from High School, I had to start working at an office job immediately to support myself; but I was still very much driven towards acting. So, I signed up for Drama at the local Junior College, where I maintained a 4.0 average in it; and I loved it - it was clearly my passion. The diversion from my passion came about when there were no more night courses available for me to take - I had completed them all. I was, by that time, experiencing really good advancements in the day time job. What happened is, I got so caught up in the day-to-day struggle to survive; combined with good success and advancement; more money, in the job - that ultimately I lost sight of my dream. And, time does go by very, very fast - I was old before I knew it. To this day, I still hold such a strong fascination for the entertainment industry - and, quite frankly, I regret not having pursued my dream.

You said you want to chase your dreams - but that you don't know what you want to be. You must ask yourself, what are these dreams you want to chase? Is this dream a concrete one; like the one I had; when I "wanted to be an actress when I grew up?"
Or did you use the word "dreams" in an abstract way? Perhaps you state that you "don't know what you want to be" due to the current confusion regarding the football scholarship .... people tell you that you should want to take advantage of the free education, so you probably feel an "obligation" to do so. But, is the education really "free", if it consumes your time to the point where it diverts you from your dream - the thing you really & truly, deep inside, want to pursue? I say then, the education is not
free, but it actually costs you your true passion.

In closing, perhaps what you should do is this: get a pad of paper and make several lists. On one list, you think of, and write down, the pros and cons of remaining in your current situation. Actually physically write this - don't do it on a computer - write the lists out by hand. Entitle the first page something like, "Staying Doing What I'm Doing", or something like that. Then, on the left side of the paper, write down all the "Pros" - the advantages to remaining there. On the right side of the paper, write down all the "Cons" - the reasons why remaining there will not benefit you & your future.
But, you've got to know what your "dream to be when you grew up" was that you thought of when you were a child; to do this. Once you know that, then on another list, put the title for the dream at the top, and list the "Pros" & "Cons" for that move.

Maybe you should think of the answers to my first questions first, and come back here with the answers and we can all go from there. I am pretty passionate about giving what I believe is sound input to a youngster, when I see a question like the one you've posted here - it does my heart good to be of help. Because, there is nothing worse than being really old and wondering how much different your life might have been and much more enjoyable it would have been; if you had pursued your true passion and calling in life. "What could have been" is a bad place in which to be, when it's too late.

The older we get chronologically, the clearer it becomes to us how very real it is that we have only one shot at this thing we call "life" - we don't get a second chance to do it over. I say it is a very good thing that you do, at least, have a sense of that - and I commend you for the fact that you are seriously considering your options as opposed to just blindly stumbling along.

Regards, One Of The Difference
___________________________________________________________________


"Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it,
take yourself out of it. Chase down your passion like it's the last bus
of the night." ... Author Unknown