Do I have a problem?

First off, let me tell you a bit about myself. It's nearly impossible to offend me, or make me angry. I'm incredibly open minded, and find it hard to dislike anybody, hold a grudge, or cast blame. I have a great sense of humor, and love improvising in front of large groups of people, making everyone laugh. So, I tend to get along with everyone, guys and girls. I guess you could say I'm somewhat of a social chameleon, as I can usually get along with anyone. As a result, I try to help everyone understand each other, as I see most conflicts between people as being mostly pointless, since in the end they usually stem from a lack of understanding. So, I'm open minded, sociable, and I'm good around people. However... I prefer to be alone, and given the choice between a party and a night alone with a few pieces of paper and a pencil, I'll choose the pencil and paper in a heartbeat. I'm an artist, and I have been since I could spell my name. In my free time I draw comics, work on indie games, short films, animation, I even digitally compose and produce music. Hell, I've done pretty much everything under the sun at this point. I'm 19, going to an art oriented college, and I've basically dedicated my entire life to improving myself as an artist and starting a career in the future, that's all that really matters to me, more than friends, family, or anything else. Here's the "problem". Art is important to me, my future career is important to me, more than anything else, and my family see's this as a bad thing. However, what they see as the worst problem (my father in particular), is that I don't seek out relationships, be they emotional relationships or purely sexual ones. I'm a virgin, I've never had a girlfriend, and to be honest I don't plan to. It would be fine by me if I lived my entire life without ever having had sex, dying alone at 80 or so. The reason being, art is simply more important to me, I'm happy when I'm alone, and I don't want to have anyone other than myself to have to worry about. So, A lot of people seem to think I should be chasing after girls at this point, doing anything I can to get laid, or get a girlfriend, or even go out of my way just talk to girls, with the sole intention of getting into a relationship. But sex and relationships just aren't important to me. It's not like I'm unattractive, or shy, or lacking in sexual desires, it's just that I don't care. (And no, I'm not gay) Anyhow, I don't see it as a problem, in the end I can live a happy life and continue to do what's important to me. Do you think I have a problem?

I think far too often we decide what other people should do based on how we ourselves do things. I think you are a beautiful soul and have a purpose for your life. You aren't hurting anyone so you should be left alone to follow your own path. You are level headed and know what you want and what you don't want. Art is an amazing thing and it sounds like you are a natural artist. Do what you do and don't worry about it. As for your family, they may need to hear that you love them and you understand that they may be worried about you. However, ask them to understand that you are not like them and therefore, you may make different choices than they would. Your passion is different but not bad. And, to keep it light, tell them they are lucky that you are passionate about art and not passionate about being a serial killer. Hopefully they can enjoy the humor. Let them know they did a good job raising you and you appreciate that. Now they need to let you go on and live your life and trust that you will be happy doing just that. Best of luck to you.

I'd already spoken to my dad about it before I posted here, but that didn't do any good at all. My dad refuses to believe that it isn't important to me and instead jumps to the conclusion that something is wrong and I'm not telling him about it. So talking to him about it isn't the problem, it's getting him to look at me without seeing himself as a teenager that is. Nearly everything he tells me is based off his experience, so when we talk about anything he just doesn't take into account that we're completely different people. He can't handle me having such an opposite position.