Thanks for all your replies. I am taking a break from my prereqs this semester. Your comments and thoughts have shed some light on the debt I would accrue. I really do want financial freedom. I am a little depressed not having this set path now. Part of the reason why my current career path is not fun to me anymore is because it's so uncertain...I don't think I function so well on that path these days. I end up doing everything else...working (part-time editor and I driver Uber bc it allowed me the space to take classes), going for a run, working out, doing yoga at home, cooking, going grocery shopping, seeing the bf who I will likely breakup with soon, and just feeling meh. I was enjoying the fact that I knew exactly what I needed to do to become a PA because the structure is already set up. I'm kind of lost now and feeling a bit confused about my path. I'm saving for a writing course in a couple months but as much as I keep trying to get myself to be creative and go back to my old way of operating...I'm having a hard time filling fulfilled from the thought of that path.
I want to have a career where I have the freedom of finances and time to travel to different countries and surf/paddleboard/play volleyball on the beach. I started thinking more about lifestyle than "fulfilling career" because I believe our interests and careers are largely dictated by our upbringing and social conditioning. I believe if you were surrounded by people in the medical field...you're a lot more likely to follow a career path that fits that, surrounded by creative people who encouraged that in you...those are the skills you'll nurture and become. As an adult we have the opportunity to deprogram ourselves and go towards a path that makes more sense for our personal goals and fulfillment based on that next stage in life. This is where I'm stuck. I wish I had known this sooner before I went to grad school down a path that I'm feeling "meh" about so that I could just choose a path that would give me the lifestyle freedom. I've thought about just branching out as an entrepreneur in women's health, holistic approaches etc. Maybe I'll use this year to learn and start planting the seeds for that business. (My parents are both entrepreneurs making very little right now and really bad with money...go figure).
I wonder if part of uncertainty is because of the city I live in. It is not very encouraging for creativity outside of visual artists which is why LA or even Oakland seem like a more creative place to be for me as someone with a writing (creative and journalism) and performance background. I have never wanted to be a starving artist though. I keep finding myself here though. Anyway. That's enough for now. Thanks for hearing my ramblings Mustachians!
I mean this in the nicest possible way, really: you are asking way, way too much of a job --
especially at the beginning of your career. The career that will allow you to pay off $150K in student loan debts while traveling the world and playing volleyball on the beach does. not. exist. Maybe if you hit it big as an actress, sure, but that's not you. The people you see now who have good lifestyles and financial freedom got there after many years of hard work and sacrifice.
Your history and your writeup suggest that you still don't really know what you want to do: you spent a lot of money to follow one path; that path wasn't fulfilling and didn't pay enough; your solution was to spend even more money to follow another path; that also didn't sufficiently tick both boxes; and now you are proposing to do exactly the same thing again. I don't get the sense that you actually have any interest in being a PA -- you want to write and be creative and entrepreneurial. But you are focusing on this path, at a cost of another $100K in loans, simply because it offers better pay. But based on your history and your interests described above, I guarantee you will find that job stifling and insufficiently creative once you are in it. And then what?
The best thing you can do now is to stop throwing money at your problems until you figure out what you actually want to do and can afford -- not running away from what you're unhappy with now; not blindly running toward some vision of being paid six figures to be creative; but what real, actual job that pays your bills can you tolerate for a few years? Please, please, see a career counselor before you spend a penny on any more classes.
I also strongly suspect that you will find that jobs that pay your bills do not involve the kind of creativity and flexibility you want. Almost no one (especially creative types) gets all of their needs met by their job -- you are asking too much, especially at this point in your career. Look at it as a job, a way to pay the bills and pay down the loans. Get your creative needs -- writing, entrepreneurial hustles -- met in your spare time.
Honestly, my advice would be different if you were 18 -- if you are truly drawn to the creative and entrepreneurial, at that point I would have encouraged you to follow that spirit and be as creative as you want, and to arrange your budget around what that kind of work pays. But you can't afford that luxury when you are six figures in the red. So focus your next few years on a day job that allows you to pay off your debt as quickly as possible. Be creative and entrepreneurial as a side hustle. Once the loans are gone, you can afford to take a harder look at whether you can support yourself solely with your creative/entrepreneurial endeavors -- added bonus that, if you are keeping your expenses low and working on your side hustle over the next few years, once the loans are gone you might be at a point where you can afford to quit your day job and support yourself solely on that income.