Complicated thoughts

Hi there, I’m a 17 year old kid from Australia who’s been playing guitar for 5 years but got serious about it only 2 years ago. I’ve learned a ton, but since diving into music, I’ve lost interest in being a construction worker. I want to pursue music as a career, but I’m starting to doubt it. I dropped out of school last April and now work about 23 hours a week at McDonald's, and I would play guitar and try to write some stuff afterward.

When I dreamed of making it as a musician, I pictured escaping a 9-5 construction job and to avoid physically ruining my body by age 30 and being able to pay my bills and put food in my stomach.

Rock and metal hasn’t been the thing for the past 25 years, and the industry seems dominated by hip-hop and pop artists who shake their ass’ and expose their bodies and get instantly famous because they don’t have any real talent. Climbing the music industry feels like an impossible task, and I often worry that if I pursue it, and I know that being a successful musician can be very stressful and it’s almost like a 24/7 job because you have to create the material, record, promote, interviews, and other shit and I also know that all of that will almost eat your entire fucking wallet.

And I’ve told my mum that I think for most of my career it will be day job from Monday to Thursday, then Friday and Saturday gigs then Sunday idk, and that’s what I can see myself doing with my life, but then I’ll have to fight with time to find time for all of the other shit that musicians do Eg: recording, rehearsals. And thinking about it gives me a bit of a headache because no 17 year old should be stressing over this type of shit, they should be enjoying their youth but not me. There is a big patch of grey in my head which I sometimes struggle to see through and it’s a bit depressing, but I’ll live.

Any words of wisdom will be appreciated 🤘