When a young person decides they want the creative life, they are often told to make sure they have something to “fall back on”.

For example, at 15 I decided I wanted to be an actor (that said, at 6 I decided I wanted to be a puppeteer, at 8 I decided I wanted to be a forensic scientist, and at 17 I decided I wanted to be a lawyer so, really, don’t listen to me when I ’decide’ anything), but I was made aware that ‘success’ (I still haven’t decided what that means) wouldn’t happen overnight and I’d need some kind of staple to get me through until the fabled ‘then’.

From ages 18-22, I discovered I couldn’t handle customer service (mind you, I worked for two entities of ColesMyer – hardly a gleaming example to follow) or anything involving making people do things they don’t really want to do (I’m looking at you, telephone market research).  Nope, all I really wanted was a desk somewhere, far away from the icy stares.

So I wound up in admin, then in print/digital media, and somehow in full-time journalism – at last, a ‘career’ to “fall back on”.  All along, I was performing and creating and training, and that was “what I did it all for”.  The day job was just that, and the moonlighting made it worthwhile.

Then I got confused.  The thing I was “doing it all for” wasn’t all fun and sunshine.  It demanded hard work and cast-iron guts and I questioned whether I loved it enough.  Meanwhile, the “day job” seemed easy and comfy in comparison.  I started to wonder if, maybe, I wanted to fall back on it and not get up again…

Ironic, then, that the day-job I was supposedly relying on for stability and income is the thing that came up and bit me squarely on the arse, while the lofty, airy-fairy, poncy creative world is taking me places – literally, places.  I’ve been to Wagga Wagga, man.

So, to any young’uns uncool enough to be reading the rants of an unemployed 20-something recovering journalist, let me tell you that something to fall back on isn’t necessarily… something to fall back on.  Especially “in this economic climate”. 

So if you know exactly what you want – and I mean, exactly – don’t piss about.  Just do it.  Sure, you need an income and that probably won’t happen via your art immediately, but of course you’ll find a way (like, there’s no choice, y’all).

But don’t let logistics and so-called ‘good sense’ take over.  If you’re sure about the life you want then, by the hammer of Thor, go get it.  Because you just never know - your timing could be just right and your creative thing might be just what’s required, while the apparently sensible path might actually be a dead-end.

Everything takes work.  Every field is hard in one way or other.  And at the end of it all, there are no guarantees.  So you may as well do what you want.

For my part, I was never 100% sure what I wanted.  In a way, I’m starting to realise, I kind of want… everything (well, not everything – if I go through life without getting that winter flu thing that makes you lose control of certain bodily functions, that will be a life well-lived in my book).  So I’m grateful for my continually meandering path.

But right now I’m delighted that, when the day-job fell through, I had my acting* to fall back on.

*A bit of redundancy cash didn’t hurt either, let’s not go nuts…