Balancing poker, social life, and career goals. (Long but pls read)

Well I have a bit of a delimma currently since I am 20 years old, a junior in college and really embarking on an important period in my life. I really would like some advice or other people to give stories of examples from their own life, any age.. (old people have alot of wisdom so i'd love to hearr from them too). Also, professional players who live in vegas would have alot to offer me too. (If you're a pro living in vegas or someone whose moved somewhere without knowing many people scroll down to that part of my questioning)

Well my delimma pretty much is this. Currently I am very much involved in poker and working on finishing up college. I spend alot of time playing poker to make money and also alot of time working on investments such as real estate, stocks, mutual funds, etc. This takes up alot of my time and I am not as socially active as I once was when I entered as a freshman. I do have friends still but alot of the semi good friends most people have, I lost contact with those and don't hang out with them much, but I do still hang out with my good friends at least 2-3 times a week.

On weekends I no longer really go out to parties as much because it just feels like a waste of time to me in terms of what I could be doing and it's not as exciting. When I got back to college initially I decided I wanted to make sure I keep my social life happy and I went out, made some new friends, hung out with old ones, went to parties to try and score with chicks and the whole thing but, when I look at the bigger picture, I feel that my time could much better be spent trying to make money and set up a career plan that I can work towards to. I feel like by just being carefree and partying i'm giving up a great opportunity. So i'm not really sure what I want more. It would either be to focus on my social life and having fun for my last few years in college or focusing on poker and my major/education/career which can get me a head start on what I plan to do in life.

Now the delimma comes because I am in college and I don't want to regret not going out and having as much fun as I could, but this is also college and aren't we here to work and figure out what we want to do with life? I feel like I know what I want to do and poker also helps fund some of my investment goals that I have as well. Another factor is that since I have no expenses right now, I want to make the most money I can (I don't spend any of my bankroll) before I get out into the real world and no longer have this financial freedom.

Also, even when I get out of college and decide to move on in life, won't I end up having to build a new social network anyway? If so, why even invest so much time that could be used elsewhere into my current social situation if i'll have to start from scratch if I ever move. Like i said, I do have good friends that I feel very close to that I don't see as often as I did, but when we get together everything is normal. I just don't see how I could possibly maximize my social life as well as play poker to make money and work towards my career goals. It just feels as though i'd have to sacrifice one of them to a certain extent, like ive done thus far. I see my friends just not as often.

When I think about sacrificing poker and career goals for a few years to just have fun socially, I feel as though, yeah poker's going to be there later on and if i did just focus on having fun my last few years in college that i'd still be able to get the poker/career thing done when I graduated. But the problem with that is I could start right now and really get a head start on my career and have an advantage with poker because I can make alot of money with no expenses at an early age. On the other hand, when I look at just giving up putting alot of time into the social aspect for now, I feel as though since later on in life i'd have to move and rebuild a new social network eventually, that i'm not really in that bad of shape because I do have social skills and can make friends, but when I think of the fact that i'm in college and not going out as much as I used to, it bothers me. But when I think about the bigger picture and whats going to benefit me more down the road, it just feels as though i'd be giving up an opportunity now to better prepare my future.

Another phase of my questions that I have is to adults or people who have moved to vegas or to somewhere where they may not have known many people. When I graduate college I know where I want to live and it may turn out that I don't know anybody in the area, how do you go about creating a new social network? Is this an unusual situation to be in or do people do this all the time? (Move to places where they may not know many people) Like if I decided to move out to las vegas for example and become a pro (im not doing this but its an example that fits), is meeting new people and building a social network very hard to do in a new setting? In las vegas have people gone there and made some good friendships? If anyones been in this situation before please tell a story explaining how it was and how things turned out.

If my rambling is unclear my problem comes from that I want to play poker and focus on my career but this interferes greatly with my social life. I'm not sure which one I want to focus on more and what the draw backs would be. If i put poker off to focus on being social then I give up the chance to make a bankroll early and also could end up having to meet new people all over again when getting a job in another state, but if i focus on poker, I could end up having much less social connections than I could, not having a girlfriend, and becoming less close with friends I already have. Just not sure what's more important. Ive thought about taking time off from poker and my career and all that for some social gratification but later down the road when i've moved on from some of them I could be regretting not using my time better. I don't know, I really would like advice.

[shant]

We're gonna need tl;dr really quick in here.

[TheIrishThug]

what's the over/under on how long it takes dynasty to show up?

[Voltron87]

I just skimmed it, but on nights when I went out and partied if I was thinking in the back of my head "Man I could be winning some serious cash on party right now which would help me retire" I would kill myself. Literally.

[jokerthief]

[ QUOTE ]
what's the over/under on how long it takes dynasty to show up?

[/ QUOTE ]

I may have been critical in the past dynasty, I think you got a good case here however.

[ QUOTE ]
I just skimmed it, but on nights when I went out and partied if I was thinking in the back of my head "Man I could be winning some serious cash on party right now which would help me retire" I would kill myself. Literally.

[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe you value going out to frat parties and getting wasted more than I do. Or maybe I did it more than you did and it lost its spark.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
We're gonna need tl;dr really quick in here.

[/ QUOTE ]
Also, a link to the blog would be nice.

[PoBoy321]

wtf does tl;dr mean?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
We're gonna need tl;dr really quick in here.

[/ QUOTE ]
Also, a link to the blog would be nice.

[/ QUOTE ]

you're up awful late patrick. don't you have to science rockets tomorrow?

[shant]

Too long; didn't read. He's a gimmick account like CliffsNotes.