Animation Schools

[Dr Holmes]

Wow. Can't tell if I should pursue animation like I wanted, or continue going on to be a family physician.
I'm at a community college in a small town right now so it's hard to make any connections. I see some saying animation isn't worth it and some saying it'll be fine. I see the "you get out if it what you put into it," but I'm just not sure yet. I know you can still get cheated out by *cough* "some" companies and have your creativity drained out of you. I don't know if that's just for those who go in wanting to just do whatever that they can apply their style to (whatever their allowed to anyway), or if the same applies to those who have been wanting to bring to life this story of theirs for so long.

I'm assuming the average years to finish art school are 4-6. Right?
And apparently for a typical student the MINIMUM number of years it takes to finish med school to be a physician is about 11. Then there's the extra few years in internships and trying to establish connections.

I was thinking I could go in to finish med school, become a physician, work and save some money, and then go to an art school. But I don't know.
I've been told to get a degree for a career I'll enjoy doing for the rest of my life. (who hasn't?) And animation is my passion. But I don't know how well I'd be able to support myself or a family doing that. Or if I'll be able to keep up with a possibly dirty industry. I'm also assuming most of the things that I want to do, I won't be able to do. I see that many people go in with hopes and leave with shattered dreams. But I also hear that if they left then they weren't strong enough to keep pushing through to make what the wanted happen. So there is that. We've celebrated individuality for so long though that how will I know if my passion is worth chasing? What if I need to go into physiology and become a physician for the sake of the next generation of the work force? How much will I have to sacrifice? I'm not sure what I can do and what I should do yet. I wanted to be an animator so I could create this story that I've been working on for years to reach out to people and help them somehow. As a physician, there will be only so much I can do to help people. I want to do more than just diagnose physical problems. I want to be able to help people with more than that.
I did see a couple of places I could go to to work at as an animator, but.. I just don't know.

I guess I don't know what I'm getting myself into just yet.