I am often asked....

This post hits home to me. I've been a 'pro' photog (with a day job) for the last 6 years or so. Business license, website, insurance, separate biz bank accounts.. the whole deal. Mainly youth hockey stuff, but I've done other motorsports, weddings, senior pics, baby pics, etc. 2 years ago, I did 8 or 9 hockey tournaments, Friday night through Sunday afternoon, including a stretch where I did tourny's 5 out of 6 weekends. 5 hours Friday night, 12 hours Saturday, 8 hours on Sunday, up and down multiple ladders over frozen ice, dodging pucks. 20k photos for the weekend to go through.
When I first got back into it again (I was huge into photography back in the film days, so the exposure triangle was no stranger to me), people would tell me "you should go pro!". Most of those same people, after I did go 'pro' would want all my pics for nothing. Come on guy.. 5$ for a color-corrected, straightened, cropped photo of your kid, and you'll go on my site, screenshot it with the logo all over it and post it on Facebook looking like that instead of buying it from me? Is that $5 gonna break you? Might not be able to get that Escalade waxed next week, or new $600 skates for your kid I guess. Good luck printing that into a decent 8x10.
I'm dropping out.. maybe do a few senior pics here and there. I dropped my insurance this spring. Some health issues play into this too.. to many scars on my eyes. Bell's Palsy (both sides) screwed up my eyes, the lids don't close all the way, and too many hours in that cold gave me 2 permanent scars on the left eye, and 5 scars and a non functioning tear duct on the right.
That said.. I loved every minute of it. Catching those kids in the moment of glory is an awesome thing. And there are those that do appreciate it.
Anyways, after this rant, my advice to you is don't go 'pro' unless you're ready to go full bore, and deal with assholes all the time.
Take a break if you need it. Explore different things with your photography... think about doing some wildlife stuff. Or flowers. Or macro (spiders are cool!). Or street photography

Don't let assholes kill your love of it.

And, if you like doing it, and YOU like the pics you take, you are a 'legitimate' photographer.