If you like photography, how about digging farther into it. You probably want to wait for the computer end of things--editing and manipulating images, etc.-- until you get your MacBook. You're almost there money-wise, from your sig! That's great, hope you will love your MB when you get it.
But for now, how about really leaning into sharpening your skills as a photographer? You don't even need a great camera to do that. What makes a good picture? Composing a picture well is essential. Deciding what will be in it, with what else, in what light, in or out of close focus... all that stuff is what makes a picture memorable or just another snapshot.
The great thing about digital cameras is that your opportunity to practice comes cheaply, you don't have to invest in film to become a better photographer!
Can you make a picture of the same thing look sweet and ordinary in one snap and sort of dark and moody in another? It's the same object, but how you compose a shot for certain effects is a photographer's skill that takes practice. Take a snap of an empty soda can sitting on a table. Now turn the can on its side and squash it down some in the middle. Take another picture. Now look at them, one at a time, as if each one was the only existing photo of that soda can. What do you see?
Whatever a viewer thinks about any picture of any soda can, your two images will create very different impressions.
One photo maybe looks like someone set down a soda can (empty? full?) and walked away. The other one looks like maybe someone was angry when walking away! Maybe those are pictures taken for a purpose, like an ad campaign. One might be in an ad for soda. The other might be for a public service anti-littering ad. Same object, same photographer, totally different photos for different purposes.
Some photographers specialize in contrasting very different things in one photo. Maybe a picture of an old car with too many miles on it, parked (or dumped!) at the curb, clearly in focus with all its dings, maybe even some major parts missing.... and in the background at the traffic light, some next-year-model shiny rollout with like 8 miles on it. Wild. A real junker and something just off the line.
That's the kind of picture can make a viewer wonder hey, what's up with that, and then get to actually thinking about what's up with it. Who knows what they think, that's up to them. Maybe they crave the new car. Maybe they wonder where that junker is, exactly, because they could sure use that passenger side door if it's the 1983 model...
Your job as a photographer is just to nudge the viewer into thinking, period! One of our jobs as humans is to use those wonderful brains we ended up being born with. If you take pictures that make people think, you're helping people use their brains. Not telling them what to think, just causing them TO think.
Have fun! Someday we can say we remember when you were just starting out!
