Like everyone else said, being a professional video gamer is highly unlikely due to the amount of time and energy you have to put into it only to barely get by.
You're better off working at a fast food place for the rest of your life. At least you'd get discounts on your meals.
I had a discussion with one of my old high school teachers, and he told me to follow my heart, and my heart is with gaming.
That's ****ing bull**** advice. I hate it when I hear the "find your passion!" speech. When you rely on your passion, you're essentially relying on your emotions.
EMOTIONS CHANGE
Who knows if you even want to play video games a few months from now? When I was in high school, I didn't know why people weren't so into video games. I spent all of my free time playing something. Now, 4 years later, I get bored to death playing games. I grew out of it.
You need to be able to rely on something concrete.
You need to have *
DISCIPLINE*
Your lack of discipline is the reason why you're directionless in life. If you had enough self-discipline, it wouldn't matter what job you have--you'd get it done. Discipline will always triumph passion. I'm passionate about smash, but that's not enough to make me sit down and practice tech skill every day for an hour. My lack of discipline is why I suck at smash and why I'm inconsistent in a lot of things I do. I'm not saying passion is useless. Being passionate can get you taking those first steps, but your discipline will keep you walking.
I used to not know what to do with my life either. Originally, I wanted to become a doctor. But I believed in the whole "follow your heart " phrase my advisers told me, that med school would kill me if I didn't have the "passion". I didn't want to do something that I didn't "love". So, I dropped that Idea.
I'm kind of like you; I was only passionate about smash. However, I knew that having a stable living was impossible if I had to depend on it. I thought about taking different classes during my time at college or even going to my community college after i graduated so I can get a wider experience. That sounds nice and all, but that could take FOREVER. I know guys who are still searching for the perfect life after they've been out of school for 3 years. I don't want to waste time, so I sucked it up and decided to apply to med school anyway. That way I'd be doing SOMETHING instead of sitting around looking for what might interest me.
Make sure you have some sort of direction. If you want to get into game design, go for it but STICK WITH IT! I'm aware that this means that you can try to be a pro gamer too, but realize that some paths are a lot more realistic than others. I'd recommend learning a trade (carpentry/plumbing/electrician for example) or enrolling in community college to learn some kind of hard science (physics/bio/chem/engineering), math, or a skill like accounting. You can transfer your credits to a 4-year college and continue from there to some sort of graduate school. That way, you'd be able to specialize and fill a position that people NEED. People don't NEED to play video games, but they NEED plumbers and electricians to make their homes function.
Regardless, good luck.
