the best of both worlds?

so after 3 weeks of a continuous stream of papers, homeworks, and tests, i am finally almost able to relax again!!! granted, this last obstacle will take 8 hrs of my saturday, but when it's over, it's over :) though i love my major and am interested in my classes, i can't help but feel when i focus on only these things (as i've had to for the past few weeks), something's still missing.

it's the very reason i changed my major 3 times and had such a hard time picking one to stick with in the first place. i want to be an engineer in a lot of ways, and i think i would be ok at it...i also think i'd be happy doing a couple of other things too though, things that are completely unrelated to engineering. some of these things (ie writing, cooking, making music, sewing, photography) i do now as hobbies but i haven't really had a lot of time to devote to them, so i guess they're really side hobbies at best. but i've always wondered, where is that line that separates a career from a hobby?

when i graduated high school, i had been playing the flute for 7 years. i had auditioned 6 of those years for all state, always been very competitive within my school band, taken private lessons, etc. when it came time to graduate though and pick a college (kind of based on what i thought my major would be), i chose tech. not a music school, really, ha ha. i loved music. a lot. and i still do. so why wasn't i crossing that line from hobby (involved hobby at the time) to making it my life? why wouldn't i want to do that? i still don't really understand, i just know that i didn't, and now that's that. i recently spoke with an old friend from high school who i haven't seen in years. he asked me if i still played, and i told him, "not really, just on the side sometimes." "oh, that's a shame," he replied, "you were so good!" ...so am i throwing something away?

as far as engineering goes, i've always loved being outside (still do), exploring nature, and have always wanted to make a big impact in the world, maybe make a move toward solving some sort of problem. well, environmental engineering, especially with our energy crisis, pollution accumulation over the years, and rising population fits the bill as far as that goes. i really do love it, yet i hadn't even known anything about it until my second year of college. funny how things work out. so why is this so different than music? why am i willing to shape my career around this?

i'm not unhappy with where i am, it's just a question that comes up a lot in my head since i feel like my brain isn't all math and science. how do you get the best of both worlds when your profession is devoted mostly to one?