system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Is it all that bad?

Hey guys.

A little context for the past 18 months or so I've been working towards this idea that I would go and get a masters and a PhD starting in a couple of years and then go onto be a professor. I've been confident about this vision for around a year now and it's really helped ground me.

I didn't really see a reason not to want this until a couple of weeks ago when I subscribed to this subreddit and the PhD subreddit, and the amount of posts that have appeared on my front page that have been rather negative has given me cause to rethink it all.

This has left me feeling unsettled. This past year has been the only time in my life where I've had an idea of what I want to do with my life.

So, I'm wondering about if it's all worth it? What are the good parts of your job? What kind of person you should be to go into academia? What options do I have if I get the PhD and realise that I don't want to be in academia?

Thank you.

It feels like it might be relevant, so I'll tell you that I'm already a teacher.

EDIT

So I can't imagine many of those that have already commented will read this, but thank you for your replies, they really have helped. I honestly, wasn't expecting this to blow up like it has, but I'm glad it did. I have some clarity about what needs to be done now.

For future commenters, I'm from the UK and I'm planning to go into linguistics - second language education and second language education policy specifically.
gpt
Some of the complaints people have a field dependent. But in general, there are far more PhDs than there are available teaching positions at universities in the US. That alone will make it difficult. You will really have to make yourself stand out to be successful.