In high school, I wanted to be a writer or an artist, wasn’t sure which. I wrote a few stories as a senior, got a few rejection letters, decided I didn’t have it (whatever “it” was) and went off to college to do something more traditional.
My first year of college, I was in the major-of-the-month club: English, PoliSci, History, Communications, etc. Then I transferred schools, going from a directional U to a CityName State U because I was following a boy. 
At CityName State, I took whatever looked interesting while I completed my gen ed requirements. By the time I was done with my sophomore year, I decided that I really like anthropology and philosophy, so I double majored in those with a minor in Spanish.
I went to grad school in Religious Studies with a sociology / psychology focus, then let the psychology lead me into cognitive science of religion for my doctorate - which I didn’t finish after getting orphaned.
At the MA level, I’d been set to become a professor, but some of my students (at a UC, no less!) were barely literate, so I stopped after my MA to become a reading teacher and curriculum developer.
We moved for hubs’ job, and that meant giving up my curriculum work, so I went to (plot twist!) art school until I got too pregnant to reach my drawing board. I was one class shy of an MFA, but turpentine and babies really don’t mix, plus we moved again - 500 miles away from my art school.
So I taught Special Ed. for a few years until some cough organizational changes made it impossible for me to stay.
So then I decided to finish my PhD. Finished my fields right about the time my thesis advisor jumped ship to a different university, which collapsed the entire program I was in.
So I started writing travel, science, news and gossip articles for a major online news platform. It was mere pennies money-wise, but it was pretty fun and after I’d been doing it for awhile, short story and novel ideas started pressing their noses up against the glass.
So I started writing fiction again, and by golly, this time editors started buying it.
Then one of my writing mentors caught me drawing and asked if I had a portfolio. (Remember art school way back when?) Said mentor is just as famous for his art (comics and dragons) as he is for his writing, so I showed him my portfolio. He says my art is every bit as good as my writing, so why am I wasting half of my talent?
So now I’m a full-time sci-fi/fantasy writer, and I’ll be dabbling in the art side of things once we iron out the logistics for yet another move.