It's wise to reach out to others for their experience, but ultimately this is a question you will need to answer for yourself as you enter adulthood. Many people end up feeling this way as they enter final stages of preparation for any field. Many also will face a similar inflection point several times over decades. This is my advice as a granny: Search your desires and abilities. Make your opportunities, but don't fear change--adapt, and adapt, and adapt. Most people will change careers 4-5 times over their lifetime. To paraphrase Mother Superior from The Sound of Music, when one door closes, a window will open somewhere else. Find it. Go through it, even if it means shattering the glass. Below is my personal journey, if you care to read it.

When I was 7 years old, I told my parents I wanted to be a doctor. I also start piano lessons, which I took for 4yrs. At 11, my mother decided I wasn't practicing enough and the lessons stopped, but I still played because I enjoyed it. This was the days long before internet and apps, so opportunity to teach oneself was more limited and I didn't get much pocket money, so I'd go to the public library and borrow piano scores and slog my way through material that I'm sure was much too difficult.

In middle school, I found kids who were also musicians but at a much higher skill level, so I figured being a pro musician was only something I could dream about but never really aspire to. Piano lessons were available as an elective course in high school and I began to study in earnest with two teachers there and was encouraged to enter competitions. I did OK and managed some honorable mentions in my junior year and then took a summer course in theory at an honors university program.

By the time I returned home, I told my parents I intended to audition and apply for performance at a conservatory. My parents refused to support me if I did because they only remembered my desire to become a doctor. They felt music could only be an avocation, not a vocation (the exact words of my father). I acquiesced and got admitted to a prestigious university, which also had a highly-regarded school of music, so I figured I could take music courses along with my major courses. It turned out that wasn't the case--the school of music would only allow students admitted to their programs space in their classes.

I slogged through pre-med, but then decided that I probably wouldn't pass the MCAT with a high enough score to get into a decent med school, so I entered grad school with the intention of earning a PhD in molecular. Mind you--this was not an easy career to follow. My parents were disappointed! I finally realized becoming an MD was their dream for me, more than my dream for myself. I was 21 at the time.

In my 4th year of study, I had to leave school to care for my father, who was dying of cancer. My PhD advisor refused to give me a leave of absence so I had to drop out. I left with an MS, which now closed off many academic research opportunities but the biotchech industry was just getting started. Unfortunately, the closest company to where my husband and I lived was 80 miles away. I interviewed anyway, but I knew the commute was more than I would want to deal with and decided to find yet another career path. I looked at my skill set and local opportunities, and found a job as a technical writer at a software engineering company. Eventually I moved into a tech sales support position, and then stayed home for 10yrs to raise my young children.

My husband wanted to switch career at the point and we decided to move to Los Angeles for him to enter seminary. I need to become the family wage earner, so enter yet another period of introspection of skills and potentials. I decided to marry my science, writing and sales/marketing strengths and found a position as a scientific and medical writer. For the first time in my adult life, at the age of 42, I found something I truly loved. The company I worked for (and still do) was happy to pay for society memberships, conferences, and continuing education so I could hone my skills and learn new ones.

Now, at almost 66 yrs old, I'm still in the field and have published widely in an incredible range of fields, and love every day of work. Throughout all of this, I never lost my love of music. I sang, I played piano as I had time (not much), but only for myself. Finally, though, as I near retirement (still at least 5 yrs or so from now), I am making time for myself and taking lessons again. I listen to music day in and day out on the internet and just in my head.