I spent my undergrad years on a music scholarship, while quietly taking computer classes in the background and hanging out in the labs at night instead of the p

I spent my undergrad years on a music scholarship, while quietly taking computer classes in the background and hanging out in the labs at night instead of the practice rooms. I had talent, but I think even then I subconsciously knew I didn't really want to do it. I got into four out of five of the grad programs I applied to in music--good programs, too!--but I just didn't have the motivation. A summer of interning as a sysadmin and I was lost: I deferred grad school for a year and then never went, and I've been in IT ever since. The thing it took me a long time (and some therapy) to grasp was that I didn’t fail. I made a positive decision for the direction I wanted my life to go in, and took it. And more importantly, I didn't have to give up music just because I didn't make it my career. I now play multiple instruments and enjoy a much broader array of music than I ever did as a student, playing and singing American traditional, Irish, and folk music with my family and other people. Having let go of feeling obliged to make it a career, I felt free to make it a passion without feeling like I had to succeed. I wish more people felt like they could study music in college in order to make it a wonderful part of their lives, rather than "if I can't be Horowitz, there's no point in continuing with this".