lol, hey, I haven't posted here yet.
My future occupation will be pretty similar to arlen's, only focused more solely on orchestral and band music. Percussion ensemble pieces as well. In fact, as it turns out, a perc. ensemble piece I wrote last year will probably be published, as I talked to my boss about it, since it was used for marching band performance last year, so that'll be a nice $500 check.
Plus the about $25 each time someone purchases the score (which will probably rarely happen, realistically), and then over time that price will increase.
Writing music for band and orchestra is actually a pretty well paying job, it's just the getting your first major publication so people know who you are and will buy your music that's the hard part, so I still have a long way to go.
And then there's another percussion piece as well as my first symphony I've sent for publication consideration. Without a live recorded performance, the symphony will probably not happen (and I don't have the money to hire our orchestra. Paying by the hour for rehearsal time gets expensive). But if the symphony does by chance get picked up, that'll be a nice fat check. ^____^
So, lol, I know it sounds like I'm mainly in this for the money. Which is only partially true. I mean, yeah, money's great, but realistically if I was in this for the money, I'd choose a different career, as I'm going to be pretty poor for a while. But I love writing music, and it's all I'm good at, really, other than playing it.