Did anyone else choose the safe career path over something you'd enjoy?

I relate everything back to trauma at this point lol. So... I went to law school just because it seemed like the safest economic option, and my friends from my major were going too. I didn't have any passion for law beforehand. I was just happy learning what I was learning in undergrad and that was nice while it lasted. Then after graduating I had to figure out how to actually make a living with my useless degree.

Law school seemed like the only practical route. At the time, financial stability mattered a lot to me. My relationship with money growing up was pretty unstable. I was well off when my parents were together, and then after they separated, that disappeared. My dad lived in another country and as far as I know, didn't give my mom much, if anything. My mom and stepdad are steeped in debt. I was even technically homeless for a time after my parents split.

So between that and having a really abusive, unstable home life in general, I think I became obsessed with having at least my finances secure, so I committed to law.

The problem is, I kind of hate it. Maybe I'm just older now and care less about things in general, but law has never really appealed to me. I hoped I'd eventually develop some deep interest in it, but I never did. I worked as a paralegal for years, spent summers at law firms. I got through law school. At no point did I feel like this was something I'd enjoy doing for years. But I kept going anyway.

A lot of the work just feels like soulless mental masturbation. Endless intellectual complexity in service of things I don't care about. The only legal work I enjoyed was pro bono work for animal advocacy orgs, and I think that was mostly because I actually cared about the cause.

I have the financial stability I wanted. But I built my career around fear and longing for stability rather than interest.

And then there's the culture. There are genuinely kind people in law, but I really dislike how many self-absorbed, status-conscious, mean people this profession seems to attract. I dread being in environments where people engage in vicious gossip and instinctively size each other up. It's just a really bad feeling.

I'm not denying that I'm in a very privileged position. I just also think this path isn't one I can thrive and be happy in.

I don't even start working again for another few months and I'm already dreading having to go back into that office. Feels like a pretty bad sign. The work already feels like a chore before I've even started my career.

I keep wondering how much of this came from growing up without stability. Maybe if I had felt secure, I would've taken more risks and pursued a career I was interested in. Idk.

Did anyone else choose the financially secure path out of fear (or something else) and then switch careers? I still don't really know what I'd do if not law though. Maybe I should've become a therapist or pursued a graduate degree in my major instead. But those things probably would've come with their own problems too. Idk. I just feel stuck already before I even started working as an attorney. It's just that I can't make myself care about the work. It's dead and joyless. But that's work for most people I guess. Having your passion be your career is a rare privilege not many people get to have.