From the time I was a baby (literally), I loved lighting. Just the way different types of light enhanced different areas and objects, and set a mood for anything. Even as a young kid, I would play with the dimmers in our dining room setting different levels and seeing what they looked like. I gathered up flashlights, and lit my stuffed animals from different angles, just seeing how the light "worked". I have no idea why, but I loved light.
In 8th grade, I finally joined my high school's theatre program to work with lighting. I simply could not get enough. Throughout high school, it is all I wanted to do, and I spent every moment I could on stage doing something lighting-related.
When I went to college, I never thought I could make a real career out of that, so I decided I might go into architecture, as I also loved to draw, and design houses. My father, being the business man, convinced me to go into engineering, because it's much more lucrative right off the bat (at least it might have been then).
I lasted about 3/4 of the way through my freshman year (during which I also worked in the college theatre program), and after just a few days of Calculus 3 (aka pure misery), I broke down and called my parents to declare that I was changing my major to Theatre. This, of course, met with a lot of resistance. They pictured a starving artist unable to pay his bills and living on their sofa while delivering pizzas.
But nothing like that ever happened. I spent the rest of my college life playing with lights. I joined the student activities council and ran lighting and sound for their events, working up to a production manager. A position was created for me to do this further so that I could be paid to do it. I was in heaven (except for those pesky classes).
Upon graduation, I went on tour with family ice shows for numerous years and traveled all over the world, still playing with lights. There were good times and bad times, as there is with everything, but looking back...I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. After that I went out with a Broadway show for a little over a year, and that was probably the best year of my life, bar none.
Nowadays, I still work as a freelance lighting designer, technician, and programmer. I'm not exactly where I want to be in the field, but I'm still getting to play with light almost every day. The bonus is that it pays quite well, and being freelance leaves me plenty of free time to pursue other activities.
I'm now looking for ways to combine my love of light and my passion for 3d animation/visualization, especially since with a new baby on the way, I'd rather not spend months away from home as I do now. If I ever get that worked out, I'll be almost as happy as I could be.
Damn, that was long...tl;dr : I've loved lights since I was a baby. It's what I do now as a career. And I'm paid pretty well. Absolutely worth it.
That is a fantastic, simply wonderful, life-affirming post; just brilliant and an absolute pleasure to read. Well done.
My own remarks will not be as long, save to mention that I always loved reading, writing, and history (and, more recently, current affairs), and travelling, and somehow, I have been lucky enough to have managed to find professional fulfillment - most of the time.
It's a long story, but I have managed to spend most of my working life as a teacher of history and politics at a number of different universities, - the idea that people would pay me to talk about and research and publish the stuff that really interested me struck me as one of the most amazing things and civilised ideas I had ever come across; I could hardly believe it. Indeed, I still remember my delighted stupefaction when I taught my first class over twenty years ago at the thought that I was getting paid to talk about the stuff I wanted to talk about anyway......and did talk about, endlessly, in pubs, coffee-shops, etc.
Besides that, I have also worked as a public servant and I have spent quite some time in a professional capacity working in a number of the countries which most fascinated me.....so yes, it has been interesting.
My thoughts on doing what you love in this "bad" economy are the same as my thoughts in the 1980s (another "bad" time). Do it. There are few pleasures greater than having a spring in your step as you go into work, light of heart and easy of gait, where the work is interesting, and the colleagues supportive.
Needless to say, to get that and an excellent income rarely happens, so I think one must prioritise one's needs; for me, I'd prefer a pleasant environment and stimulating job; money is not my god, and, if necessary I will have two or three part-time jobs (and have done so in the past...)
Conversely, there are few greater hells on the planet than to have to go to a job, or face a boss, or a work environment, that you cannot stand, irrespective of income (I've been there, too; it's awful, as anyone who has been though it will know; an excellent income cannot really compensate for that, to my mind. Others may well disagree, and please feel free to do so).
Yes, a lot of the time, what I did as a teacher was not exceptionally well-paid, but I have to say that I really enjoyed it and loved going to work, preparing and teaching my classes, researching stuff, and meeting and mentoring students.
However, to the wider issues and matters raised by the OP, I think it easier to make these decisions if one is not constrained by other commitments (family, children, financial obligations, etc.....) I think it is better to be safe and keep your job only if the job is okay, or excellent; if it is hell on earth, then, well, it is an endurance test simply to face into it each Monday; I'm not sure security and a regular salary can compensate for what may be a sick feeling in the pit of the stomach. At the end of the day, it depends on what one's trade-offs actually are....
Cheers
