Passion vs. Prominence

Yesterday at work, my mom looked over at me typing away, and with a smirk says, "Someday you'll make a good employee for someone..." and swivels her chair back around with a snicker while awaiting my reaction. I shot her a spiteful look with one eyebrow raised which caused us both to laugh, and she says, "You know I only said that because I know you want to be a business owner." This led into a discussion about how the lousy economy was affecting my career choice, and that I had decided to "take the safe bet" with a degree in social work and settle for a decent government job.

I think nothing of my word choice and turn back to face my computer. She turns her whole body towards me and demands my attention:

"Jacee, look at me, don't let me everrr hear you say that again... 'safe bet?'. The economy has gone through this before and some businesses will prosper no matter what the market is like."

She goes on to tell me that the founder of McDonalds started the company during a recession even though he was already 50+ years old. In my defense, I explain that photography is not as much of a necessity as food, and that a photo studio would go out of business before a food place, so hey, bad example. We kind of agree on this point, but her argument was persuasive enough to get me thinking about where I'm currently at with school.

I'm halfway through my Associate of Arts, which in my case, would only do any good if I transferred to a university and completed a bachelors in social services or liberal arts (the two bachelors degrees I had been debating on.) Neither of these will do me any good in pursuing photography because the only place that even has a bachelors program in photography is the art institute, and hey go figure, they have an entirely different associates program and the progress I've made so far in school doesn't cover their course requirements. I'd have to start over at ground zero if I were to change my major at this point. Then again... I have tons of professional photo experience and could easily pursue it without a degree... hmm....

I'll have to put some serious thought into it and decide if that's something I can commit to doing, or even if I feel like it would be worth it. It's tough deciding between keeping your hobby as a just a hobby, or making it your lifelong career. But for me, what it comes down to is knowing that lugging around my camera and tripod just feels right, and I guess that's really all I should consider.