Originally Posted by
tyler 
The only thing I can figure is that deep down I feel that if I succeed, then success will be expected of me, and I won't be able to meet those expectations.
Who expects you to be successful? Why is it any of their business whether you succeed or not? And what's the definition of success? Is it your definition or someone else's?
I have a friend who wants more than anything to finish his college degree, he's one semester away but had to take a semester off to work and get some money together to pay for it. His sisters, dad, girlfriend, a number of his friends from college, nearly everyone he knows tells him he's 31, has child support to pay, has a felony record so no one will hire him anyway, and is a loser because he won't move home to the crappy little town he hates and take a construction or factory job and join the real world. The only people telling him he's on the right track are his mom and me. Should he listen to everyone telling him he can't be successful? Their definition of "success" is pretty backward, if you ask me.
I guess my point with all that babbling is that if you're worried about what other people think, maybe you should work on that? It is not their business whether you succeed or not, and it isn't their problem either.