Navigating Senior Year Blues

It’s been a long summer, and it personally has felt like the longest summer breaks out of the four years of school. In the previous years, the excitement and anticipation of starting a new year have made the summers feel long, but things have changed this year. Everyone’s path toward their artistic goals is different, and some might enter their freshman year with a clear sense of what they would like to become and what kind of job they want to have after receiving their diploma. Eventually, everyone finds what they are passionate about doing but when that happens depends on the person. The last two years for me have been spent dipping my toes into as many pools of visual effects as I can until finding which one I’ve wanted to dive into fully. This is where I find myself in what I’m calling the senior year blues, and my goal is to express why I’ve been feeling this way and help anyone who might be going through the same thing.

So, I’ve found what I want to do, so many of you might be asking why I am feeling sad about it. The simple answer is that I only have 3 quarters of schooling left with no plans of pursuing a master’s degree, so time is really starting to tick. A full school year sounds like a lot of time, but when you start to break it down, it isn’t really. One quarter is 10 weeks, and that time doesn’t allow much freedom to pursue personal projects if you are already working like I am. Some people suggest that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill, and while I’m sure employers aren’t expecting a master of their craft straight out of college, I feel very strongly about striving toward that expectation.

All of this has felt very overwhelming, and the one trick  I’ve tried that has helped a little is planning out your learning. The first thing is to have an overarching goal which, for me, is to have a body of work that I am ready to show to recruiters by February 2023. So, I have 7 months until that goal, but as we all know, it never works as simple as saying, “My goal is to become a millionaire and step 1 is earn lots of money”. So, I created an excel spreadsheet and broke my goals down month by month. The first month would consist of watching tutorial videos and becoming more familiar with the software. By the end of the month, I would like to have become completely comfortable with almost every aspect of it and ready to start some projects. The next goal is to pick a simple project, like, in my case, creating a simple tornado simulation. That way, I can have something to show for my hard work thus far and have a solid foundation moving forward. The rest of the plan follows a similar pattern with incrementing levels of difficulty in the projects so I can test my skills as a VFX artist.

Somewhere in there, you also need to be making sure that you are utilizing all the opportunities that are given to you. One thing SCAD is known for is having a great support system, so if you are feeling lost or confused, there is always someone that you can reach out to. I reached out to my student success advisor to go over the classes  I will be taking for the remaining year, and I plan on getting in touch with my career advisor as well. These people are there to help you and to help get the most out of your time here at SCAD and believe me, their guidance and knowledge of SCAD’s resources are very valuable. Your professors are also here to help, and if they don’t have access to the kind of knowledge that you’re looking for, they will certainly know someone who does.         Take it from someone who has always been scared to ask for help. It’s scary. It’s difficult to admit to yourself that you don’t know what you’re doing. While I think it’s important to be able to take the initiative and solve problems on your own, in cases like this, it’s perfectly okay to ask others for help, even from your peers. I hope that  sharing my current experience  helps you if you feel that you’re in a similar situation. Just remember that there is still time, and as long as you use it wisely and don’t lose focus, you will still be able to achieve your artistic goals.