I Disappoint a Lady at My Grandfather's Funeral

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was at a funeral… in Tennessee. My dear grandfather expired and I travelled to the other side of the continent to see family and grieve as a group. 
    After the main funeral speeches and whatnot, we were herded to a large room where all the food and refreshments were. The second I stepped foot in there, this lady materialized from the wall beside me and started talking to, first my mother, and then to me. She proceeded to guide me away from the rest of the population and chat about her connection with everyone there and such. After that, she began questioning me. 
    It was simple at first, just a “where do you live” question. 
I answered with the lovely little island I inhabit. To which she mentioned she taught a lot of students at one of the universities here. 
Next, she asked if I was going to school. 
Here’s where things took a turn downhill. Back, during the speeches, my uncle had made a point that about sixty-seven percent of my grandfather's life was spent doing what he wanted to do and enjoying it. So this lady made a reference to that when I told her I was just working. She said, as long as it gives me sixty-seven percent happiness. 
I made a joke back and replied, “well I get a thirty percent discount which I like”. As I’ve come to understand it, she must have thought I was working at the university to get a discount on my classes. I came to this conclusion because she asked me what I was studying and I then said I just work at a drugstore. 
I explained that I was working and stockpiling my money, but wasn’t going to school. She decided to ask me then, if I paid rent which I thought was a stupid ass question because obviously I can’t live somewhere for free unless it’s with my mother whom this lady knew wasn’t dwelling in the same country as me. So I said yes. 
“That’s not a very effective way to save money then. You should move here, you’d find a job in a heartbeat”, she told me. My brain buffered a moment because I had no idea why moving to Tennessee would somehow be easier to save money or work, but I finally sputtered something out like “I’m looking to do something in the arts”, to revert back to the desired occupation topic. 
I said to her that I knew I wouldn’t make much money going down that career path and she agreed with “unless you're someone famous”. I just wanted this conversation to end so I told her, “well there we go, I just need to become famous. There’s probably a twenty-seven percent chance of that.” I don’t know my percentages. I failed math class. She clearly didn’t because she said, “oh much less than that. You should find a different career”. 

So, over the course of, I dunno, seemingly endless minutes, I gradually gave this lady less and less hope in me. She thought I was working and going to school, but then it turned out I wasn’t going to school at all and just working whilst dreaming of being an artist of some sort. It’s just so odd to me that it’s gotten to a mindset for some people that working and paying rent isn’t a proper thing to do in life. Nay, we have to have fancy jobs and higher education and success in living an interesting life. Simply working isn’t good enough. 
Now, I may not be going to school for law or be apprenticing an accountant, but I know my shit around my drug store. I’m not learning to be a doctor, but walking canes are just past a column in a wee nook on the left in aisle four. I don’t work in an office, but Q-Tips are on the bottom shelf on the left in aisle five and shoelaces are on a weird end rack situation right across from the frozen meals. I can’t operate a Windows program but if you’re looking for empty spray bottles, we don’t sell them. Just because I work a minimum wage job in the undesirable position of cashier so I can pay rent for my frequently on fire murder building does not mean I’m failing or unsuccessful or lesser than those doing something different. The expectations really shouldn’t even be high for my generation anyway, we’ve got the shoddiest hand in life right from the start. It’s a miracle any of us are even mildly functioning. 
And to tell me to find a different career path because the one I want doesn’t pay much, well, go gnosh mulch! If I have a dream job, let me dream. She is not the first person to tell me to choose something else, and I doubt she’ll be the last. But I already made it clear in a previous log, how important the arts are, so to criticize that want of mine is all the stupider. 
I don’t understand why we all have to be spectacular at all times. Even more so when everyone’s opinions on success are different. Sometimes we just be floating around merely trying to make it through the day. Nothing wrong with that, for you can’t get to your destination without taking the road that leads you there. If I took anything from this, it’s that I now have a second person to prove wrong when I become a successful artist without going to university. Prepare to be proven wrong people, prepare to be proven wrong.