Can I ask what you were going to school for? I'm not sure if you should force yourself to finish, it could lead to better opportunities but you can still be successful without college. Idk how many years you have left but you should consider what you want and if they're other paths to get there than traditional schooling. Anyway, best of luck to you
Hi! We're going to college for Bachelor of the Arts in Multimedia Arts. (MMA). It's a jack-of-all-trades degree, where you learn Illustration, character design, audio engineering, video production, scriptwriting—a little of everything. We initially chose this degree because... we originally wanted to do animation, but the program was full and we were sent to our second option: MMA. We also chose it because we liked doing everything. I'm glad we didn't get accepted into Animation though. While I'd like to be a storyboard artist or get into character design, I don't believe I would be healthy in the animation industry lol. Just like architecture... a lot of horror stories have come from people in the animation program/major.
As for years I have left... I've done the math, and if I continued at the rate I was going at before (3 classes a week. The bare minimum in my country), I'd graduate in 2028 if nothing goes wrong. However, I've started to struggle more, and it's looking like 2030.. When I'm 30. This is because I've had to take lesser classes due to struggling and my growing depression! I'm in this funny limbo where there is a chance I will be exiled from my school if I fail a class (or fail classes too many times). Having less classes allow me to balance what keeps me alive, as well as getting good grades. However, it means it will take me longer to graduate.. Not a problem, except it's turning into psychological torture, haha. It's getting worse.
I know there's no limit to how old you can be in college, but it's such a depressing thought. I know so many old friends who have graduated a long time ago. Plus as I get older, I'm just learning more and more what calls me.
you should consider what you want and if they're other paths to get there than traditional schooling.
I actually do know what I want! And I don't need schooling to get there, at least not anymore. Besides knowing I want to somehow do my art full-time (going to art markets, doing commissions for a living or most-of-a-living, streaming, putting more into kofi/patreon by creating more from the heart, making merch), I was figuring my day-job would involve voice acting somehow, or freelance (commission work again). A dream job would be storyboarding or character design (which I have already finished studying academically), and I am willing to do some advertising. I can't imagine myself entering the corporate world, however.
Being in college has honestly been an exercise in learning what I don't want to do. I don't want to majorly be doing 3D-work. I don't want to do web-design or game programming as a day job. I don't want to do 3D-animation or majorly be an animator. I'm too disabled (and stubborn) for that. I don't want to do video production in the industry, etc, etc.
I want to continue to going to art markets. I love the community. I love the people. I love connecting to people. I want to continue livestreaming. I love drawing in front of people, I love explaining my process. I like sharing my thoughts on games or why I drew something a certain way. I like how interactive it is when audiences talk to you as you draw and it influences how you draw. I want to continue dong commission work. I like working with people and figuring out how to share their vision into something actually visible. I love seeing people's passions and I have the honor to draw that. I love voice acting, I want to continue my hobby of acting with the occasional paid gig. I want to contonue selling my work even outside of markets and conventions—I want to hand pack everything I send out. Ever since I was a baby, I've wanted to start an online store and send packages to people. I want to wrap them up myself, add little drawings, and say personal thank you's.
I make jokes with friends referencing how I am also a very confident and assertive person—if I entered a job with management I disagree with, I would get fired almost immediately for being too outspoken and annoying haha. I don't believe in working for people who are not nice and don't have good morals. It's because I believe that despite the horrors, the world is meant to be a good place with good people, so I want to curate that world for myself and others.
Thanks for the well wishes. I am really terrified and exhausted, but I am trying. All I hope for is that whatever happens, I don't disappear from the world, and people continue to watch and support my art. And that hopefully I am able to eat while doing that.
