<p>Aibarr–I found your post to be refreshing, if not encouraging! I have a soph student majoring in Aero right now. It is tough–no way around it! And, he is not brilliant–very smart, but has to work hard. However, this is what he has wanted to do since elem school–oh, he thought he wanted to be an astronaut, but as he went thru the jr hi and HS years, he refined that thought into aerospace engineering. I will say that at times he is frustrated, tired alot, and has a very minimal social life (but he does try to maintain one!) As parents, we tried to encourage him to consider more of a liberal arts degree or business, for that matter, as one parent is an atty. Son is an excellent writer. However, he has since come to tell us that the liberal arts courses that are required are just to “boring”, even tho he can whip out a 10 page research paper with little or no effort and receive very good grades. Is he discouraged? No, he explains to us that he likes the challenge of it all–even if it means up till 3 or 4 am sometimes and grades that may not be the easiest to come by. My only hope is that he will indeed find the happiness that you seem to have found as it sounds like this was indeed a true passion for you. And, while you may not think you will ever make the “big bucks”–you sound happy and content and there are an awful lot of people who end up making millions because of their passion. Believe me, son is well aware of the salaries and is not in it solely for the money. Thanks again for sharing an insightful post!</p>