Do you ever wonder what life would have been like had you chosen a more standard path? Does everyone have these doubts sometimes? We wanted to find out and so we asked as many talented artists and creatives as we could and have shared highlights below.

DONIA DUCHESS

I absolutely love what I do. I love my life and I love all the challenges I’ve faced thus far to get to where I am. I’ve always known I wanted to work in television. As a kid I wanted to be on the Disney Channel. As a young lady I always saw myself hosting on E!. As an adult I figure why not dream even bigger and envision myself having my own show?! I’m constantly fascinated by people. Each person has such a unique story and I’ve always enjoyed the idea of being able to help them share their journeys with the world. With all of this, I’ve also many times wondered what it would be like to have a “regular job” The pressure that I put on myself to hit milestones of achievements was something I’ve battled most of my life. Read more>>

Unitsi Ai

Technically, and fortunately, I have a “regular job” that pays the bills and gives me the opportunity have time to work in my craft. Unfortunately this financial stability came at the cost of losing all of the elders that raised me, that being my Mother, Grandmother and Grandfather. If my Mother had not passed away first, she would be in my position today running our family company leasing and managing commercial real estate. But heartbreakingly so, melanoma took her from all of us when she was only 51 years old. So that puts a lot of pressure on me, who, yes has a college degree with a minor focused on Business, to fulfill and continue the family legacy and not let the rest of my siblings down. Read more>>

Ji min Yoo

It’s wonderful to hear that you’re happy as a concept artist and that you find fulfillment in your creative work. Everyone’s happiness and satisfaction come from different sources, and for some, pursuing a creative career is incredibly rewarding. It allows me to express myself, follow my passion, and make a living doing something I love. If you’re content with your current path, there’s no need to wonder about having a regular job unless your circumstances change or you have a curiosity about what other experiences may be like. Read more>>

Tai Drury

Like with any career there are highs and lows, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s what I was called to. At a very young age I had the great luck to witness John Henry Bonham play the drums with Led Zeppelin in their live concert documentary “The Song Remains The Same”. I knew instantly I would be a musician. This might even be my first memory around age 6-7, the first time I felt consciousness. It electrified my entire being. Read more>>

Dawn Noel

I am extremely happy being an artist and I couldn’t imagine my life any different. I was not put on this earth to be a robot, work in a cubicle or do something I was not happy doing. Now don’t get me wrong, I have worked outside of being an artist for short periods of time to pay bills but I loved the people I was working with and it was for short periods of time. Read more>>

Alberto Puerto

As an artist, I find a great deal of joy and fulfillment in my creative pursuits. The act of expressing myself through art has always brought purpose to my life and unity to those around me. I have hedged the challenges that come with this path by adding the educational component to what I do, which provides the stability and certainty that are necessary for any artist while I enrich the lives of others. The educational component itself can be an art form when it is balanced properly with my creative projects, so I have never seriously considered a “regular” job since I have successfully integrated this component rather than adopting a more conventional career. I cherish my creative space, and so I balance these pursuits as artfully as I can. Read more>>

$inful Bluu

Before deciding to be an artist full time, I did everything the traditional way. After I graduated high school, I put my creative side to the back burner and worked towards a normal life. I went to college, majored in criminal justice, danced as my main hobby, graduated college and got a job as a juvenile case manager, but nothing about the traditional life satisfied me. I would be in my office writing lyrics, planning out content and music videos, talking to my kids about music and their artistic interests until I finally mustard up the courage to quit and solely focus on being an artist. Since then I’ve been able to thrive in my element, hone in on my skills, and really explore within my own creative mind and it’s the happiest I’ve been because I’m doing what I actually want to do. Read more>>

Jonathan Ortiz

I am happy to be an artist, i love the freedom to be able to freely express myself and not have the feeling of being limited by “remaining” under someone’s idea of what work is. I’ve actually worked at a “normal” job before, and yea, it’s not for me haha. Read more>>

Mercy Collazo

Oh what a question to ask. I’ve learned so much when it comes to the word “Happy”. The thing about being an artist. You don’t plan it. You just are. Sometimes you wonder what things would be like if you would’ve went down a different path. I’ve tried many and I always come back to the very undependable creative whirlwind I call my artistic life. I wouldn’t have it any other way though. Right before the pandemic hit, I was getting ready to release an album. Then all of a sudden, the world shut down. I sat in my room with my laptop and my logic open. I kept writing and recording even though I had no idea how to really do it I kept going. I have a wonderful production team called Meter Mobb and they’ve always been my go tos. So here I was stuck in a cave off PCH wondering how I was going to continue this journey. But I did it because I had to. Read more>>

Hao Yu

I consider myself incredibly fortunate and overjoyed to be immersed in the realm of art-related work. I hesitate to label myself as an artist just yet. The artistic landscape is populated with many seasoned individuals whom I greatly admire and from whom I can learn so much. Read more>>

LaMar Johnson

Am I happy as an Artist? Yes! Through my artistry, I have the ability and calling to heal & inspire others through my music. Music is frequencies. It has the power to control emotions. I do not desire to put out negative vibes – there’s enough of that happening currently. I’m all for spreading positivity. So being an artist is my Superpower and I intend to use it to the best of my ability. For many years I never considered having a “regular job” a thing because I have always conducted my business like it was a full-time 9-5. Read more>>

Praboo Ariva

I am very happy as a film editor. Whenever the films I edit spark a reaction from the public, I feel contented as I have managed to enable the audience to feel for the characters or story on screen. You see, I relate films to the fundamentals of human experience. As humans, we feel empathy, sympathy, epiphany and sometimes we suppress them in order to avoid ourselves from being looked at as vulnerable. Films in the cinemas allow us to experience things in private that sometimes encourage us to do the things we were once afraid of. For me, I was inspired by a Hindi film called 3 Idiots. Read more>>

Gabriela Ono

Growing up, I had other aspirations, like any kid does when surrounded by the traditional career paths that are presented. However, as I experienced various activities in school, I realized that everything I was most interested in was always related to some form of artistic expression. It started with singing, then drawing, but eventually, I found myself drawn to storytelling, specifically in filmmaking. I never really questioned my decision. Of course, there were rough days, as the film industry is not for everyone. But I had my low moments and moved on because I knew this was something I wanted to pursue. Read more>>

Eduardo Vega de Seoane

I think we all are creative beings but our society makes us difficult to developp our creativity. It’s always risky to be an artist but I think is one of the best things one can do . Life is short and to be able of create makes it beautiful , I don’t miss at all a regular job. Read more>>

Autumn Ivy

At my high school graduation party everyone asked me what my plan was for college. Naturally I said, “theater and dance.” They looked at me with those eyes. You know, the eyes that any adult with a stable career and consistent income says to someone who wants to pursue the arts for their whole life… eyes. I stayed strong. I continued down this route of “lights, camera, action!” or if you’re more of a theater nerd like myself, the route of “what’s your objective when you say that line? Is it impacting your partner the way you want it to?” Either way, I was in love. This is what I wanted to do and I was not going to waiver. Read more>>

Kyglo Webb

I am beyond happy that I chose to risk my comfortable life to follow my dreams of being a professional artist. In no way was it easy, but where’s the feelings of satisfaction, accomplishment if it’s easy? Part of the hidden fun is realizing how much grit one has to go through in order to become the artist they are today. Don’t get me wrong. There are days where I don’t want to do the work. Not because I don’t like what I do, but because I’m challenged so intensely every single day, that it can become overwhelming at times. I’m consistently faced in class with my strengths, weaknesses and those of others, and when you spend 5-10 hours a day with the same people five days a week, it’s only a matter of time before the conflicts arise to meet their makers. Read more>>

 Stan Myers

I have found being an artist fulfills my sense of purpose and calling. I can be confident in saying this because I have the privilege, at this place in life, with a more complete perspective. When I started my carrier, after graduation from the university, my intention was to follow a “sensible” career in commercial design and illustration. However, as it turned out, the economy did not provide such opportunities and I had to look for any source of income. I figured, if Im an art major, maybe I could find a part time job doing sales with an art gallery. Read more>>

Aljournal “ELOVET” Franklin II

I’m not sure that being an artist is about being happy. Ignorance is bliss, but as an artist part of the job is to be very aware and very sensitive. You have to feel and experience a lot of things that other people don’t or that they also feel but not as deeply. Then we take these feelings and experiences and through our art, we translate them to something others can relate to and digest. So no, a lot of times I’m not happy, but that’s ok, it just makes me appreciate when I am happy. Read more>>

Donald Ian Bull

I am happy to have a career where I can be creative. However, I used to wonder what my life would have been like if I’d taken another path — a very specific one. In my early 20s, I barely earned money as an Associate Producer at a PBS station in San Francisco. I supplemented my income by being a swimming instructor at a men’s athletic club. A very successful stockbroker approached me and asked me to teach him how to swim. He’d almost drowned twice as a young man and missed the chance to swim with his kids, and now that he had grandkids, he didn’t want to miss out a second time. I agreed, and over the next eight weeks, I used all my accrued knowledge as a lifelong and collegiate swimmer to teach him how to swim, and it worked! Read more>>

Tiffany Clarke Harrison

“Happy” is an understatement. I’m 44 and spent many years doing what I thought I “should” be doing despite feeling the pull toward the arts. Very little about a “regular job” appeal to me in my twenties but I didn’t know any different. Working a 9-5 was simply what one did after graduating college, and I fell in line. When I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) at age 37, all that changed. Over the next couple years I left my role as a marketing director, and decided to pour myself fully into finishing my novel (Blue Hour). I enrolled in an MFA program and not only finished that novel, but submitted it to an interested agent many months before graduating. She signed me immediately. Read more>>

Melanie Meriney

I love being an artist, but making consistent money full time is a continuing challenge for most in my field. That said, I’ve actually had a number of “regular” jobs that have helped me support my artist career through the years. These have included teaching high school English, being a personal assistant, driving for UberEats, waiting tables for over 10 years, and most recently, real estate. Read more>>

Marcus Juno

The journey of an artist is never easy, yet we consistently crave the grind that sometimes leaves us feeling depressed and like we have failed. It’s an obsession, really, and it goes to show that some of us prefer spontaneity over stability. What we crave isn’t the constant worry about whether we will be able to afford rent. It’s the feeling we get when we realize we have done something that brings us fulfillment. That’s something the system cannot give us, and therefore something we need to figure out how to sustain ourselves. The system tells us that our life is about preparing for the end destination. An artist understands that there is no destination. Read more>>

Nishy Acsell

Yes, I wonder how some people get through the week by chanting “Happy Friday”, then disappear into an abyss called the weekend where God-knows-who actually shows up on the worker’s behalf to live their two-days of freedom. Mondays are especially fun because they stumble in as if they’re walking to the electric chair and the only escape is the “last meal” -at 5’o clock happy hour. Entirely liquid. In fact, it’s only recently that I stopped having recurring nightmares of waking up in a cubicle under 5 managers who demand I copy and paste every data point onto a spreadsheet for our meeting. Read more>>

Maryury Maynard

Oh! Yes, I am. It’s what I love to do most in my life. Read more>>

Asia Bonetto

I find immense satisfaction in my creative pursuits, but like anyone, I do occasionally wonder what it would be like to have a ‘regular’ job. The stability and predictability of such a job can be tempting at times. However, my commitment to being a voice for the voiceless and bringing important messages to the world through my creative work keeps me motivated and dedicated to this path. The occasional curiosity about other possibilities is natural, but it hasn’t swayed me from my creative journey. Read more>>

Smyly Sickwitit

I play such a huge role in my community as an artist and philanthropist. Read more>>

Anya Dinovich

Yes, very happy. No I don’t. I had a regular job for many years prior to switching to being a full time artist/creator. Read more>>

John Allen Nangle

I have Never had a Regular Job . I have been an entertainer actor for 50 hearts .I love making people Happy ! When preform i do . Read more>>

Kat Reinhert

10000% happy. I can’t image life without being a creative. Read more>>

Jacques Lesure

I am extremely happy. My life is a never ending journey of wonder, surprise and beauty all wrapped in love. Read more>>

Monika Demmler

I did have a regular job but that wasn’t for me. I’m definitely happier being creative while of course, there are other difficulties coming up. In-between, I actually do think about having a regular income when insecurity grows in myself. However, I decided to make “time” my currency. Life is too short to be stuck in a rat-race. Read more>>