Why do I worry about my desires?

Start playing locally while you are in school. Starting out you won’t make enough to live on, but you can get experience with performing in public.

College goes by quickly, but it’s worthwhile having that as a backup. If you leave school there is a strong likelihood you’ll never go back.

How much school do you have left? Have you considered pursuing music while going to school in the early stages? You could always leave later after you achieved a certain amount of success that forced you to choose.

Once you’ve made your decision, there’s no point in worying about it or regretting it.

If you have decided on music, then go for it. You may be able to come back to school someday if you want to or you may not.

With your desire to pursue a career in music, it is probably a good life plan to have a back-up. It is awesome that you believe in yourself and have a great feeling about being successful, and there is nothing wrong with proper preparation to increase your confidence. Perhaps if music is what you really want to do for the rest of your life you could change your major music. That way if your career as a professional musician doesn’t pan out you can teach music or find another way to use your degree in a field you love. I really like @zenvelo‘s idea to start playing gigs locally while you are still studying. In a college town there should be plenty of places for live music.

To answer the rest of your question, in my opinion, when trying to plan for the rest of your life it absolutely is worth hesitating and thinking through your choices. The fact that you have an inclination to do so shows that you are wise beyond your years.

When you do make it, mention Fluther and your username so we’ll recognize you! Good luck to you!

@minnie19 First, welcome to Fluther.

I totally concur with the advice you’ve gotten above. College is a great back-up. More than that, it’s an opportunity to broaden your knowledge, which will feed into your creativity as a musician. Don’t rush through any life-changing decision just to get to a goal you can as easily achieve in a few years from now. Don’t make decisions that might leave you, when you reach my age, looking back and saying, “Damn, I wish I’d taken the other road.” By the time you realize you took the wrong turn, it’s usually way too late to reverse course.

It’s one of those pesky life questions nobody can really help you with:

To what degree do I play it safe, how much should I risk?

The kicker is, life is mostly about luck, so you never really know. Advice is a dangerous thing, so proceed at your own risk. Just promise yourself one thing: no regrets.

I know this is very vague, but it’s your life and nobody can help you live it.

Good luck!

I was in similar shoes. Now, at 51, I realize how short those 4 years were. I wish I would have stuck it out. I probably decreased my total lifetime earnings by over a million dollars by not finishing those other three years. (I quit after my freshman year in college.)
You can still go after your dream, you will still be young when you graduate, and if you become a big star that is great. But if you don’t, having a degree will increase your choices for jobs. There is nothing worse that having to choose if you will feed your children or pay the power bill.
You never know where life will take you, but a degree is something that can’t be taken away. Why throw a way a tool that can make life easier for you in the future.
(By the way, some of the most successful artists didn’t abandon their college. The most successful are that way because they are smart, educated, and hard working. There’s more to being a successful artist than talent.)

How do you know you’ll be successful in music? Have you performed? Have you made money? Do you have any recordings? Do you have a manager or producer or anyone who believes in you? If not, do you have a plan to find these things?

What do you play? Do you sing? What kind of music?

I believe you should follow your bliss, and do what makes you happy. If college just is miserable for you and you have opportunities to do what you want to do, then I would certainly consider doing that. However, if you have no opportunities, then I would stay in college until you make some opportunities. Unless college is making you miserable.

You can always go back to college later. But I think you should finish college and you should study what you love to do.