Street musician. I've taken a stab at it for brief moments here and there, but I've never gotten around to giving it a serious trial.
It's funny because there have been times when I was playing in public just for the hell of it, or because somebody just happened to have a guitar lying around, and I'd usually get a crowd around me without meaning to, everybody smiling and nodding, but whenever I've sat down somewhere in public specifically to "busk" I'd lose my nerve pretty quick. I think part of it was that it just felt too much like panhandling, and I'd be self-conscious about it from start to finish. All it would take would be a dirty look or two or one rude comment and I was done for the night.
Funny that too, because I've never had a problem getting up on stage in front of a crowd, although I think part of the reason for that is that heckling is a lot less likely under those circumstances.
In my mid thirties I was at kind of a crossroads in my life: I'd started college a cpl years earlier (yeah I had a late start) had a 4.0, had already been published, and because of all that and my age I was looking at a real good chance at a scholarship to Stanford.
My plan was to get my personal trainer certificate so I had an income while I was attending classes to become a technical writer.
It all made sense, but I wasn't really excited about any of it.
A third option that really wasn't any more than a fantasy by then was to just take some classical guitar lessons to augment what I already knew, grab my guitar and just see what it turned into.
If it worked, I could see myself getting back on the road and using my music to finance my travels.
This was what I really wanted to do, but like I said I was already in my mid-30s and figured it was time to get "serious" about things.
In retrospect, screw making sense and getting serious.
Life's too short for that nonsense.
Lesson learned: follow your dreams or they'll wind up following you whispering, "What could have been" in your ear.
