I can relate to your situation quite well.
I graduated high school in 2005 and I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do as a career. All throughout grade school I was very astute in Math and Science and was very interested in microbiology. My whole high school life was directed to eventually having a career in the field, I wrote 7 AP exams in grade 12 and essentially had my first year of post secondary completed before I graduated and actually did some special study courses with other high schools.
After graduation I enrolled in the University of Manitoba and got into my second year of my Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. I enjoyed the first quite a bit but I think I started debated in the back of mind whether or not I could see myself working in a lab for the rest of my life.
Moving into the third year of my degree I was was pretty eager to continue but I was starting to just want school to be finished. Concurrently with this time I had needed to make some cash to pay for my education and a pretty cool opportunity came up to work with the American Hockey League team in my hometown.
Sport has been a life long passion (even thought I didn't know it at the time) of mine which I actively watched and participated all throughout my life(hockey being #1). So my thought process with the job was that it would be a good opportunity to make some cash, watch hockey for free and get away from the lab environment for a 10 hours a week.
Little did I know what a can of worms that decision would open
It didn't take long before I realized that I was a lot more eager to go to my part time job then I was to go to school and work in the lab. It had never occurred to me previously that there was even a potential to work in the sports industry and I started to wonder if i could make it a career.
I did a little digging and found out that there was a specialized undergrad program at Brock University in Sports Management in St. Catharines, Ontario about 2000 KMs away from my hometown that would give me a great foundation to pursue a career in sports.
After I did the research I actually tried to dismiss the idea as irresponsible citing the fact that three years of school were in the books already, they were all payed for through scholarship, I was living at home for free, I had a gf of three years at the time and wasn't sure how the long distance thing would work out, my whole support network would be gone etc etc...basically making every excuse possible.
I talked about it with many friends, family and my gf and all of them kept saying the same thing, that I needed to follow my passion.
Ultimately when contemplating this advice I came to the conclusion that my passion was sport, and that lead to me deciding to enroll at Brock and pursue a career in sport.
Fast forward to the current day and I couldn't be happier with my decision.
I have completed my degree in Sports Management, secured my first job working with a professional hockey team in hockey operations (I get to go to a hockey rink to work everyday
), I am going to be marrying the girl that I wasn't sure if a long distance relationship would work out with in the summer and have meet a whole bunch of great new people in the process.
With all that in mind I think I can relate quite well to the the decision you are contemplating and I realize that is is not an easy one to make but my advice to you is the same as I was given to
follow your passion, you will be happier for it.
