19. Unemployed. Musician. About to be homeless. University dropout. Unfinished album

  • Thread starter Thread starter chivalry
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dude ...... I've made a living playing music for 45 years. It's all I've ever done and I'm good at it and and I can tell you flat out that writing or doing your own original music is extremely unlikely to earn enough money to make a difference.
Anything is possible, of course, and if you come back in a year to tell us how well you're doing with it I'll be the first to congratulate you but it's so unlikely that I'd bet big dollars against it.
About the only way to be pretty sure of making money is if you're really good on your instrument and can pick up something with a good cover band. Some of those guys make decent money.
Maybe you should stay in the course .... do your best even if you flunk. If you've got decent grades other than this course one single course shouldn't get you kicked out.
Why do you become homeless if you drop out?
Are you on some sort of grant or something?
 
Lt. Bob said:
dude ...... I've made a living playing music for 45 years. It's all I've ever done and I'm good at it and and I can tell you flat out that writing or doing your own original music is extremely unlikely to earn enough money to make a difference.
Anything is possible, of course, and if you come back in a year to tell us how well you're doing with it I'll be the first to congratulate you but it's so unlikely that I'd bet big dollars against it.
About the only way to be pretty sure of making money is if you're really good on your instrument and can pick up something with a good cover band. Some of those guys make decent money.
Maybe you should stay in the course .... do your best even if you flunk. If you've got decent grades other than this course one single course shouldn't get you kicked out.
Why do you become homeless if you drop out?
Are you on some sort of grant or something?
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I'm on a student loan which I obviously have to pay back. If I drop out that will be cancelled. And with the current money I have and no job I'd be homeless. I stated other reasons in the forum by quoting others..I reckon rent would be used up in like a mOnth plus there's food etc.
I'm predicting what will happen really if I do make a bad decision/good decision.
 
I think you need to get honest with yourself about the level of commitment you are willing to make to your education.

IT'S YOUR FUTURE!!!

I'd say that's pretty damned important; that is, if you want to have a future.

Whatever portion of that student loan you use will have to be paid back, with interest, regardless of you getting a degree or not.

This is the time to buck up and do the work at hand. Drop the music becuase you're using it like a drug to blot out the hassles of school and not having an income.

If you really want to get hired you need to drop the "woe-is-me" stuff and put yourself out there. If you're in a college town there are plenty of part-time shit jobs with turnover that are always looking for a warm body.

IF you drop out......

10 years from now when you are looking at turning 30, have no degree, a shit job and no direction........

Probably at least one or two kids, married or not........ paying child support or running from it.......

You are gonna look back and realize you blew your shot when you were 19 and copped out on yourself way too soon.

And by then it's way too late and even more expensive and a much bigger PITA to try and get that goddamned degree.
 
c7sus said:
I think you need to get honest with yourself about the level of commitment you are willing to make to your education.

IT'S YOUR FUTURE!!!

I'd say that's pretty damned important; that is, if you want to have a future.

Whatever portion of that student loan you use will have to be paid back, with interest, regardless of you getting a degree or not.

This is the time to buck up and do the work at hand. Drop the music becuase you're using it like a drug to blot out the hassles of school and not having an income.

If you really want to get hired you need to drop the "woe-is-me" stuff and put yourself out there. If you're in a college town there are plenty of part-time shit jobs with turnover that are always looking for a warm body.

IF you drop out......

10 years from now when you are looking at turning 30, have no degree, a shit job and no direction........

Probably at least one or two kids, married or not........ paying child support or running from it.......

You are gonna look back and realize you blew your shot when you were 19 and copped out on yourself way too soon.

And by then it's way too late and even more expensive and a much bigger PITA to try and get that goddamned degree.
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this pretty much sums it up.

Change majors next term if you need to but you need to make getting thru school your full time job.
 
chivalry said:
I'd need a place to live (parents out of the question).
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chivalry said:
Well my parents are divorced and I hate my dad :).
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What about your Mum ?
Say for the sake of argument you go to her for this ensuing year or 9 months or whatever. Is that the worst thing that could happen ?
I know it's easy for us to talk but you are asking for advice.
Without going into detail, is it so ridiculous to stay with your Mum for 9 months ? You seem to have pretty much concluded that this current spate of university is done for you.
You know something weird. From time to time, I ask homeless people living on the streets of London how they got there in the first place. And at the risk of offending anyone's sensibilities, I have yet to meet one in 19 years that absolutely had to be there. Not saying they wanted to be there by the way. But they didn't have to be there. That kind of statement irritates some because it seems like I'm saying that it's their choice. But in a real way, it is. Many of them faced situations where, just like you, a choice needed to be made. The alternative would have meant great difficulties and would have been a pain in the patootie. But it wouldn't have meant homelessness.
Life isn't often easy. It's grafting through it's hard times that enable one to live.
 
hey chivalry, nice to meetcha. you remind me of myself when i was your age.
fear not, no matter what your mom says now to persuade you not to drop out, she'll take you in if it comes down to you being homeless. there are plenty of 19 year old "musicians" who live with their moms.
also, don't necessarily believe what everyone says about dropping out being the biggest mistake of your life. i dropped out of high school and while yeah it was a mistake, i went on to make much much bigger ones in my twenties ;). i am pleased to report i have a decent job now and do alright, but it was a looooooooooong sometimes miserable road.
you will likely work a series of shit jobs and work your way up very slowly. you will learn about things like punctuality and humility as you develop a skill set. you will keep your head down and mouth shut regardless of how much of a hot shit you think you are. 10 maybe 20 years down the road you will become a valuable worker but expect to get dirty and take your share of BS on the way.
in the meantime i'd recommend talking to an academic counselor at your school. i'm willing to bet it's free and not many things in your future will be. most engineering majors get into it because they have that "engineering mindset". if you are flunking your courses, it's pretty likely you don't have that. time to switch majors, maybe to something less technically oriented. if you decide that school is truly not for you, make an appointment with a career counselor. they can help you figure out what your specific strengths are so you can exploit them on the job market.
 
just realized this is one of those threads where OP "asks for advice", several people respond, and one by one the OP shoots down each persons suggestion.
is there a term for that?
 
My mum took up a job in another country and we hardly speak.
The reason why my course is extra hard is because the professors cant teach for shit/don’t want to teach for shit. They assume that we should know everything. Heck, I was given a frikkin manual to go over through during some computer programming shit while they just went outside to have a fag and a drink. If anyone had a problem then well…TOUGH. Bunch of f**king elitists…
(Im not asking for sympathy here …Im just telling you the truth)

The sad thing is that the uni I go to is pretty highly ranked in the world and I guess y’all must think im a selfish privileged bastard if I decided to throw it all away…
Well my uni is closed for the Christmas holidays so I cant really talk to people. I fear the year 2011 for me… I realize getting a job in this market is very hard…but then again life isn’t fair. I find it weird that most of the people in this forum are musicians and yet they claim there is no money to be made from doing music? Im confused – does that mean y’all chose music as you had no other choice or something?
 
Stick out uni.

I just started as well, and the course has got fairly tough fairly quickly. I'm not disliking it (well, I'm really enjoying most of it), but the prospect of what I have to achieve the next 5 years as well as the constant fear of failure is fairly daunting. To some extent the fear of failure its consequences with it motivates me to stick at it in the short term.

The volume of work has meant I've more or less given up recording for now and sold a lot of my superfluous gear... I've got a month off over Christmas, time I would normally fit a few demo recordings into; instead I've got my head in textbooks most of the day.

But that's a temporary sacrifice... we won't be at university forever. Heck, we're basically halfway through the teaching year already and it barely feels started.

Now, time to stop procrastinating and get back to my notes :p
 
chivalry said:
The reason why my course is extra hard is because the professors cant teach for shit/don’t want to teach for shit.
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That's right, it's different in college... they don't care if you learn anything or not. It's up to you to get your education, they'll just point you in the right direction.

chivalry said:
I find it weird that most of the people in this forum are musicians and yet they claim there is no money to be made from doing music? Im confused – does that mean y’all chose music as you had no other choice or something?
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For most here, music is a hobby. There are some who make a living at it, but not many. It's doable, just not likely.
 
mattr said:
Stick out uni.

I just started as well, and the course has got fairly tough fairly quickly. I'm not disliking it (well, I'm really enjoying most of it), but the prospect of what I have to achieve the next 5 years as well as the constant fear of failure is fairly daunting. To some extent the fear of failure its consequences with it motivates me to stick at it in the short term.

The volume of work has meant I've more or less given up recording for now and sold a lot of my superfluous gear... I've got a month off over Christmas, time I would normally fit a few demo recordings into; instead I've got my head in textbooks most of the day.

But that's a temporary sacrifice... we won't be at university forever. Heck, we're basically halfway through the teaching year already and it barely feels started.

Now, time to stop procrastinating and get back to my notes :p
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This kid is my hero.
 
crap I seem to have to spread a lotta rep before giving it to the gerg again!
:mad:

Hope you had a great Christmas with the family and everything.
 
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chivalry said:
I'm on a student loan which I obviously have to pay back.
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Just as a side note about the student grant, And I'm not sure if this applies in the states but I know that in Ireland that if you have a student loan your not required to pay it back until you start to earn a living (get a decent paying job that covers your rent / food) and if you stay below a certain income for so many years eventually the loan is written off,

And on a side, again, not 100% if this applies in the states but theres a book in called 'Blank of Ireland' (Bank of Ireland is a major bank here and this is based on it but make sure you search BLANK) where a guy was able to write off his €700,000 Mortgage purely by writing a couple of letters, turns out that if they don't have the cash ready and waiting (Numbers on a computer screen don't count) then the contract you signed for the loan is null and void. I won't go into the specifics. Anyway.

As for the whole being homeless thing I faced a similar fiasco. I'm 19, a musician and moved to Dublin to find work as a gigging musician, I have been making quite a nice living for the last 2 years playing in Louth and then came winter and all my gigs dried up, but I just started searching websites, CV after CV after CV I applied EVERYWHERE, sure I had a glimmer of hope that I'd get a call from a studio looking to pay people so that they could test new gear :P or a Music shop so I could get paid in plecs and strings but in the end I got an interview for a video games shop (an American Franchise that just moved to Ireland) and took it, the hours suck, my boss is clueless and I could live without the place but its rent and food till I'm back on my feet. I'm still sending out CV's and now that I have a job I can afford to be a little more picky about hours, location, Occupation etc. but all in all the best advice I can give, dedicate as long as you can to finding a job, don't specify what time, just apply for a 40hour a week job, if its daylight out, go drop out your CV door to door in every town within commutable distance come nightfall, cup of coffee and your local jobs websites.

Just my advice
 
sometimes you have to put your priorities first. Unless your going to get a guaranteed paycheck off that album hold out and take care of school.
 
i was a southside loco in Oklahoma city for 15 years, dropped out of school to get my knot on, preferred being strapped to school books...and my hommies to teachers..

ooops hang on Im watchin gangland...
 
Thanks for all the advice. I'll let y'all know how things are going Sometime in the middle of 2011...or maybe the end of it.
 
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