Mmm, I've been drawing ever since I can remember, also. Just... because. It's the thing I did. It also helped that I was naturally good at it, so many around me were always "Oh, you're so good, you're going to become an artist, aren't you?". If they didn't, I got better just to spite them... ahaha... I didn't actually consider being an artist as a viable career until I was in college, I think. (Careers I'd been considering before then were: dolphin trainer, horse trainer, farmer, editor, translator... I don't even know. Nothing very serious. Always been good at anything I was interested in, so not bothered.) When I discovered concept art (which I still think is one of the coolest things in the world), and that hey, you could actually become an artist without knowing the right people from the get-go (until that, I hadn't actually met any artists that weren't teachers or been shown how it is actually possible to market yourself). It really solidified when I discovered Minna and saw that she quite literally created her whole career by herself.
As it is, though, I still don't want to be only an artist, forever. I want to travel, I want to teach English as a foreign language, I want to create video games, I want to learn more about IT, I want to study history, I want to write books, I want to compose music. Artist will forever be the main label I identify with, though.