So my parents relented (a little bit) and are now willing to discuss my possibly going to Chicago. So maybe all hope isn’t lost on that front.
But I have to ask myself a question here – would I be better off/happier to take a route that involves a lot of experimentation, study, research, and exploration in territory where there hasn’t been a lot done (media arts) prior to really trying to make a big entry into the professional apect of my career, or would I be better off/happier to just take a flying leap and plunge right in.
To apply specifics to this, would the better choice be for me to go to Chicago now and immediately try to get lots of photo work and try to stay afloat and see what happens, or go to Japan for a few years, get my masters in a field that’s just beginning to even have a name and start major professional work a little later on having developed a large body of work, research, and strategy?
Each approach has its major advantages. Stay in the US and go to Chicago, I have near-instantaneous satisfaction in that I am exposed to the real industry from the start and can sort of work my way up from the inside. Go to Japan and I get my foot in the door in the Japanese market, get my masters degree and do major research in media arts studies, and I return to the US with major tools for international trade, cross-media information utilization, etc.
Disadvantages as well. Go to Chicago and I may miss out on my chance to go to Japan for a while and will have a lot less in the way of opportunities to develop the theories and skills that I would build there. Go to Japan and I may get very impatient with things because I’m not as actively involved in the commercial aspect of things as I would be in some place like Chicago or NYC were I to go there from the start.
At least I feel like I have something resembling a choice now. It’s rather refreshing, I tell you.
