Dilemma

Navel-gazing post again - my apologies in advance! :)

I'm sitting on the spikey horns of a dilemma. Do I suck it up and go back into a line of work that I loathe - but it will pay well, and will enable me to accomplish some dreams that take cash? Do I stay where I am and continue to save on commuting/schooling - but shrivel up and die inside, and cope even less financially? Or is there some third option I'm just not seeing?

It all revolves around this set of choices.

First option - and I could end up stuck on a path I really don't want, caught up in a lifestyle that isn't really me and putting on a face that doesn't match my insides. I may have cash for a change though.

Second option - I know what I'm dealing with, but I don't think I can do it much longer.

Third option - will someone please send me an Oracle?

Inaction may be worse than action in the wrong direction, but I don't want to make a huge mistake on this one. I've reached a stage in life where I can't reconcile putting on a face yet hating it, with the real person I know myself to be. It's boiled over into non-conformity in some areas already.

If it were just me - without someone else I'm responsible to (the kid) - I could take chances, BIG chances, and test many waters before diving in to the one that's best. OK, we could live in Olivia if we had to, but there are opportunities I can't let slide for him and he needs stability at the age he's at. Teen years are difficult enough to get through without being uprooted, not having a safe place to fall back on. He's not a conventional teen, but I'm not going to make it more difficult than it needs to be.

So I'm sitting on these hard, sharp dilemma horns. Do I betray my soul for financial stability or a continuing rut-existance, or do I live authentically and take what life throws my way? How - exactly - do I go about the latter?