Somebody Give Some Advice, Please! Options

[gellybean]

I would like to go to NYC this summer to pursue a singing career but I can't afford it. Any idea where I could find a sponsor?

[wroyj]

advice? who ever takes that - i know i don't but here goes

first - at 16 years old i'd say get a trade, be it cooking or
driving a truck - something where you can support yourself
in a style better than street level and be your own master

certainly music is lovely, i've been playing now for over 50
years and hope to do so until the day i die - and in my younger years i suffered for it, through broken relationships, a marriage
a child, divorce, and not being able to buy groceries or put a roof over your head hurts - you and those you love.

my son is 29 y/o and is also a musician - and he struggles too
and i give the same advice - he just finished college last year
and now he can persue the music with more vigour since he
has a little more money and something to fall back on as well

music is a harsh and fickle mistress - when you hot your hot
and when your not your not and it changes, up and down throughout you life - when i was young and working as a bass player i used to play with all the "lame" old men in the gargage band circuit - blues, country, rhythm and blues - now i am one of them (ha! ) and you know it ain't so bad. I'm sure as you move on in life you play with guys who played witht he greats and for one reason or another chose a different path - i have
and it's been a great honor.

so i work as a nurse, play music as much as i can, and hang in there for the joy of it -

so i say go for it, grab it for all it is worth but at the same time
get a trade, take a few years to learn something that gives you a decent living so you can control your destiny - you can do your own promotion and marketing, set you own venues, and are not so beholden - even the classical players do this (believe it or not) i sat and talked with a cellist from the St Louis Smphony when i had just finished music school and she was telling me of all the years she studied cello, gave lessons, worked in an office, and she'd made it - she had a chair in a major symphony orchestra - and she was in her 50's as well
and old, old lady for me at the time.

so good luck, but be careful - NYC, London by yourself, alone
and broke are scary places.

*wroy