Can Art Still Pay the Bills?

Millennial guilt has been weighing on me recently.

I took a risk. I went to school for a non lucrative subject in a non-lucrative field. I published a book. I put my name on it in big, black letters.

I worked less hours at jobs or let jobs go entirely in order to have more time to devote to writing and promoting my writing.

I went into debt and moved back home to pursue writing and other passions when I learned the hard way a career as a school teacher was not for me.

In one of our last weeks of classes at the University of Baltimore, we had a guest speaker, an alumni of University of Baltimore’s writing program to show us what life could look like after grad school. “It is not a career field,” she said. “It is a career meadow!”

Sure enough, she and several other alumni who spoke that night reported vastly different paths post-graduation and publication. One young poet, Micaela Williams (@micaelawritespoems on Instagram) went full time into promotion and social media for other authors. Another settled more fully into graphic design. Still another deepened her career in public radio.

There are no clear paths. Life holds no straight lines.

Perhaps, the lesson is there are no clear paths.

How have you balanced your passions with practicality lately? Do you do what you love? Or is everything that lights you up reserved for after work? What does your balance look like?