When I Grow Up, I want to be a Dinosaur

So people like to ask me what I want to do after graduate studies.  Answer: More graduate studies!



As you may know if you read the FAQ (it comes highly recommended), I am studying Commercial and Electronic Music.  I won't go into depth here, but if you really want to know what that is all about, read the FAQ (seriously, do it.)  In short, I will study the music industry, play with a lot of music tech (software and hardware), and get a lot of writing experience on the way.  A lot of people ask what kind of job can I get with that, and that answer can be pretty long (if not easy).  My real answer is that it doesn't matter -- this degree is a waypoint, not a destination.

The key is in the previous paragraph: get a lot of writing experience on the way.  Procrastination and inactivity has always been my enemy, so with school I am putting myself in a position where I have to write.  When I'm done, I will have a portfolio that will be the key to the next waypoint: Graduate studies in Music Composition!  That's right.  Graduate school to force myself to write, so that I can write stuff that will be strong enough to get me into more graduate studies where I will learn to write better.  Oblique! Round about!  Awkward?  Sounds about right.

And let's not forget that I want to study Japanese and minor in Japanese Studies also (FAQ).  At this point, I am not even registered for the all the classes I need for C&E Music (more on that on a later day), so the Japanese Minor will take a back seat until I'm all settled in my first priority.  But it can't be ignored, because when I'm ready for that second graduate degree, I want to earn it in Japan.  You might say that's my destination, for now.

But always we return to this: what job can I get after all that?  I don't know.  This I do know: I am forging my own path via methods that I have chosen for myself.  Knowing that, I can only guess that my "career" might be more of the same, a unique path that can't be classified as a job.  Or maybe I'll bus tables at Denny's.  There's also the flipside to this crazy plan:  What if this does not work?  What if constant, reliable, and quality writing is an impossibility for me?  Well, should that come to be then I will have tried, I will know, and I will be satisfied.

TLDR: I want to be in school forever, have fun in Japan, and who knows if I can make a career after that.