Career Discussion

[Lord]

and when I think of all the actors and actresses out there in their late teens or early twenties, how they were out making movies at my age, whilst here I am sitting down all day, playing Xbox and animating.

It really drags down your self-esteem thinking that people your age were doing so much more than you are now.

Yeah, but can Chandler Riggs animate stickmen as well as you? I think not. All he does is play a character that no one can stand with a much overdue death on a show that's otherwise great.

Most child actors kinda suck. They either play douches or are real life douches. If you want to be an actor, go be an actor and follow your dreams but don't let assholes who were on TV at ten years of age make you feel bad about yourself.

Thanks, something else I want to throw out here to do with the subject of child actors is the actress Saoirse Ronan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saoirse_Ronan
A short summary of her for the lazy reader;
When she was 13 she was in a movie called Atonement, and was nominated for an Oscar because of it. She then went on to be in another 8-10 movies in the past 8 years. Most of those movies were mediocre, but her acting was always singled out as top-notch.

Now, what's on my mind is this; "Wow! She managed to do all of this in her lifetime so far! I should follow in her footsteps! Oh wait, I'm already 14, nearly 15 even."
I'm trying to convince myself that you don't need to start young to be good, but as the saying goes, "You're only young once" and I already feel like I'm wasting my youth indoors most days.

There's still something in my thoughts about her though, I can't really tell if it's jealousy, admiration, or both...

[Josh]

I don't mean to put anyone down, but in every profession there is always someone that has been/is better than you are. Moping around because someone got big at your age is stupid, because it's bound to happen. There are millionaires my age, that doesn't mean I'm sad because I'm not one of them. Age doesn't much matter, just because you're not a child superstar at 14 doesn't mean you'll never become one.
Besides, I'd rather not have that much fame when I was that age. Having to go to school and learn things, then having to learn my lines for a movie would be hell for me at least.

As for my career, I hope to be a computer programmer of some description. I'm quite web orientated at the moment, so that might be what I go into, but I might decide it's not for me in a year or two.

[neilhavkin]

and when I think of all the actors and actresses out there in their late teens or early twenties, how they were out making movies at my age, whilst here I am sitting down all day, playing Xbox and animating.

It really drags down your self-esteem thinking that people your age were doing so much more than you are now.

Yeah, but can Chandler Riggs animate stickmen as well as you? I think not. All he does is play a character that no one can stand with a much overdue death on a show that's otherwise great.

Most child actors kinda suck. They either play douches or are real life douches. If you want to be an actor, go be an actor and follow your dreams but don't let assholes who were on TV at ten years of age make you feel bad about yourself.

Thanks, something else I want to throw out here to do with the subject of child actors is the actress Saoirse Ronan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saoirse_Ronan
A short summary of her for the lazy reader;
When she was 13 she was in a movie called Atonement, and was nominated for an Oscar because of it. She then went on to be in another 8-10 movies in the past 8 years. Most of those movies were mediocre, but her acting was always singled out as top-notch.

Now, what's on my mind is this; "Wow! She managed to do all of this in her lifetime so far! I should follow in her footsteps! Oh wait, I'm already 14, nearly 15 even."
I'm trying to convince myself that you don't need to start young to be good, but as the saying goes, "You're only young once" and I already feel like I'm wasting my youth indoors most days.

There's still something in my thoughts about her though, I can't really tell if it's jealousy, admiration, or both...

You don't need to start something young to be good.

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls056459095/

There's a list of people who started acting in their mid-to-late thirties who ended up being massively successful. You're only fourteen, if you're afraid that you're wasting your childhood, get up and take an acting class, man!

I was afraid that people who had been on competitive swim teams were going to beat me in rescue swimmer selection when the time comes. So I went out and became a certified rescue diver and a lifeguard, and I'm scheduled for even more advanced lifeguarding, ocean rescue, and emergency medical courses over the summer.

Someone will always be better than you. That is an inevitable fact. You just have to get over it and go do what you love.

[Lord]

Yeah, you're right, thanks Neil. ;)

[Llama]

I hope to be an author/writer. I have my next three years of high school packed with English and Literature curriculums, so I hope to be on the fast track into the industry once I'm done with college or in college. My ultimate goal is to write a series of bestselling books, but the probabliliteis of this, I have no clue.

If being a writer doesn't work out, I might consider a military career.

[neilhavkin]

I hope to be an author/writer. I have my next three years of high school packed with English and Literature curriculums, so I hope to be on the fast track into the industry once I'm done with college or in college. My ultimate goal is to write a series of bestselling books, but the probabliliteis of this, I have no clue.

If being a writer doesn't work out, I might consider a military career.

Write about your career in the military?

[Llama]

I hope to be an author/writer. I have my next three years of high school packed with English and Literature curriculums, so I hope to be on the fast track into the industry once I'm done with college or in college. My ultimate goal is to write a series of bestselling books, but the probabliliteis of this, I have no clue.

If being a writer doesn't work out, I might consider a military career.

Write about your career in the military?

I don't really know what I'd do if I did decide to join the military. I've always been fascinated with branches like the Marines, Navy/ Navy SEALS, and USSOCOM; forces that are the first to be called upon into the fray. I may enlist in one of those, but at this stage, I'm fully devoted to being a writer.

[Lord]

I hope to be an author/writer. I have my next three years of high school packed with English and Literature curriculums, so I hope to be on the fast track into the industry once I'm done with college or in college. My ultimate goal is to write a series of bestselling books, but the probabliliteis of this, I have no clue.

If being a writer doesn't work out, I might consider a military career.

Write about your career in the military?

I don't really know what I'd do if I did decide to join the military. I've always been fascinated with branches like the Marines, Navy/ Navy SEALS, and USSOCOM; forces that are the first to be called upon into the fray. I may enlist in one of those, but at this stage, I'm fully devoted to being a writer.

Military would be cool, it would certainly give you something to talk about after you finish.
If I ever considered a career in the military, it would be driving a tank or operating some part of a tank, I'm a bit of a tank fanatic. XD

[Franklin]

Right now I am kind of stuck trying to decide whether to go into a more practical career in science or math, or take my chances in 3D animation. I know that I am still young enough to be able to achieve either if I put forth enough effort, but I'll probably need to start focusing my efforts on one if I want to be successful. I know that a STEM job would probably be more financially stable, but there are also significant downsides. Though I am a good student (approximately the top 5% in my small MS), there are still plenty of people who are smarter and harder working than me to take the job (those damn asians). Even if I do become successful in a science oriented career, I am still not sure it would be something that I would necessarily enjoy. A job in animation, on the other hand, I know that I would probably like. However, I am worried about the competitiveness the job. Though I consider myself decent at animating stick figures for my age, I am not very good at drawing, which is probably pretty important, too. Additionally, as an art job, animation isn't extremely financially stable (I don't want any of that "follow your dreams" crap. I like nice things). I am pretty torn as to what I should do.

Spoiler:

jk I wanna be a drug lord

[Lord]

Can you not just do both? Having the ratio of Animation:Other in your own preference.

[Franklin]

I have thought about possibly going into the more practical career as my main job and only doing animation freelance or even just as a hobby.

[DrShenandrew]

I'm hoping to become a luthier. I graduate high school this June and in the fall i start going to college, and the college I'm going to has a guitar building/repair program and a violin building/repair program that I plan on going through. I love making instruments and have already made a ukulele and plan on making some sort of other stringed instrument starting next week, so I'm pretty excited about it.

[neilhavkin]

I'm hoping to become a luthier. I graduate high school this June and in the fall i start going to college, and the college I'm going to has a guitar building/repair program and a violin building/repair program that I plan on going through. I love making instruments and have already made a ukulele and plan on making some sort of other stringed instrument starting next week, so I'm pretty excited about it.

My cousin's boyfriend makes electric guitars for a living. He's a super badass guy who loves vikings, so obviously he built himself a hybrid electric guitar/battle axe.

[Jon]

I'm a journalist for a professional sports team

[Waters]

I'd love to follow animation and everything that comes with it, Pretty much art in general I guess, but I feel like I should choose a more reliable and practical path. To be honest I feel like I might be fucked from the get go considering my whole education was a bit unorthodox, Homeschooled through my mother but things kind of slowed down to a crawl near 5-6th grade, so I have pretty much no prior knowledge to the workings of a normal school setting and alot of subject and things I just never did and no idea what to expect from college, or what to do when I get there. I never really got stressed out about things but knowing how little I actually know about these things scare the fuck out of me. I'm just so confused about the entire process really.

Caution to the wind I guess.