Can't decide...

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I'll try to keep this short, but no promises.

I'm very conflicted right now. The reason being that I am trying to decide what path I want to take to get to a rewarding career that I'll actually enjoy. The two options I'm considering are engineering and graphic design. Currently I'm taking night courses (they're free) to upgrade my marks in Pre-calculus, Physics and Chemistry, since I never considered these courses back in high school. I'm doing it with a friend too, and we study together. We have to do grade 11(just finished grade 11 pre-calculus and chemistry) then grade 12, so we have 2 years total in which we have to upgrade. Then if we succeed, the course itself is 4 years long. I'm 23 now, but I'll be 28 by the end if everything goes well. The graphics design program is only 2 years long.

The time factor is only one aspect that's making me feel hesitant. I wanted to get into engineering because I love cars. I love learning how things work and finding ways to make them better. I figured if I learn the science behind them I'll be able to design solutions for a custom car build or something. It's why I'm super interested in CAD (computer aided drafting) for that reason. I know that I'll probably not find a firm that directly deals with cars, at least not without moving far away. I like Canada though and I'd like to just move closer to the mountains (soo Calgary or Vancouver). I also know engineers get paid well, whichis important to me. I'm not bad at math, science, or physics (I think? Never tried the last one), and im sure I could be great if I studied hard enough, but some days I can't find the motivation to study. It's even harder when I don't understand what I'm doing. Those days I'd rather be drawing or making a model in Sketchup or Blender 3D.

In essence, my favorite thing to do is design things. I don't care what I'm designing or how I do it, just as long as I get to design it. My visual skills are probably the best (working) traits about me, next to problem solving. My main concern is that I don't want to start anything Ill get bored by halfway through, then quit. I've done that already with IT, and I don't wanna do it again. I'd also feel bad if I suddenly decided engineering wasn't for me, and I left my friend hanging. Arghhhh. I'm so indecisive!!

I want advice from you guys. Have any of you been in this situation before? How did you decide? Any engineers or graphic designers here? If so, what's your job like? Is Engineering all math/science or do you get to do some designing of some kind? How much do graphic designers make? What's your work like? I need to get more info so I can get my motivation back.

I'm neither an engineer nor a graphic designer.

For some reason, I sense that you would like graphic designing better, based upon your post.

Engineering includes designing systems to do things, but is heavily math/science/computation.
If you really love math/science/computation in addition to design, then engineering seems good for you, but if you really love design much above math/science/computation, then design seems like better path.

Thanks you guys for the whole 2 replies. (*≧▽≦)

More than anything I think I just needed to vent, I felt much better after I typed that out.

I like the math/science, but I also like the design. The drawing/visual design just comes a lot easier to me than the math and science; I have to work at it harder. But I do find it rewarding when I get it down pat. But I've always been drawing from a young age and I enjoyed pushing myself to get better. When I was bored in class that's what I'd do. I don't know...

god dammit I'm just the worst.

graphics and design is a very competitive field, whereas once you get into engineering, you'll be sought after. just another factor to weigh.

An interesting note. Job security/availability is very important to me. I can certainly imagine it being easier to pick up an engineering job basically anywhere I want to in Canada vs. a graphic arts job. Not that I want to stay in the city that I grew up in/am currently living in, but I could imagine for graphic arts that I'd have to move to someplace where the jobs are more plentiful, like Toronto. I don't wanna move to Toronto, unless I absolutely had to. I'd rather move closer to the Rockies.

Also like I said earlier, I think engineers get paid better and have more room to grow, pay-wise. I wanna work towards a job that can get me to an $80,000 salary. I know, I shouldn't choose a job based purely on salary, but it's important to me. I wanna live comfortably and afford the things I want/need.