Precariously Yours

eight

"Come on in." Isaac Matthews sat behind his desk, ushering me inside his small office.

The room was much smaller than the reception area and looked to have seen better days. The large wooden desk took up half the room and there were piles of paperwork scattered across it. I spotted a frame on his desk and as I sat down in the creaking chair, I caught a glimpse of a beautiful smiling woman who looked to be in her late thirties. She looked to be  laughing at something behind the camera, the sun illuminating her natural brown skin.

"How are you doing today?" He asked with a warm smile.

"Pretty good, how are you?"

"Oh, you know. The usual, juggling meetings with student appointments and trying to keep my kids out of trouble." He laughed lightly. "Except for the older one, he's doing okay on his own."

I stayed quiet since I hadn't known Sebastian had any siblings. Although the topic hadn't come up, which explained it.

"So," Isaac folded his hands on top of his desk and looked at me. The warm sun coming into the room glinted off of a small silver band on his wedding finger. "I took a look at your online course records and it shows that you're currently registered as a Film major but your course load doesn't have a lot of film courses. Is that because you're thinking of changing major?"

"Well, yes. I only put Film as my major since I can't say I'm undeclared after first year." Mr.Matthews nodded and I continued. "So, I chose that and at the time I had a few film courses, but I dropped a couple since I wasn't enjoying them and didn't want it to bring my GPA down."

He nodded again. "Okay, and do you have any ideas of what other programs you might be interested in?"

I told him about the plethora of courses I had taken over the past two years. He listened intently while making a few notes on a small piece of paper.

"It sounds like you're definitely on the right track with the area of the Arts. The thing is, the Arts covers a lot of different industries and it can get overwhelming with the amount of options that are presented. But the good thing, is that it makes it easier to dip your toes into many different industries because they all have some sort of similar departments."

Mr.Matthews turned the sheet of paper that he had been writing on, towards me. He had listed Film, Writing, Music and Digital Media on the left hand side and made a single line between the middle of them. Underneath the line, he had written a few more topics such as Human Resources, Content Creation and Business.

"So here we have some of the areas of the Arts that you're interested in and here are the things that all these industries have in common. These can also be in many other industries since companies are growing rapidly these days. The good thing about university is that you don't need to get too specific because your degree may be able to help you transition to another part of the industry in the future if you'd like."

I listened to him and followed his words as he explained it. But I was still struggling to see how this would lead to me choosing a program.

He seemed to have caught on to my train of thought thankfully.

"What I'm trying to say, is that you don't have to stress about choosing a program that you think will lead to a job you'll be in for the rest of your life. If you were studying medicine or engineering or law then it would be different since those are more specialized fields but the good thing about the Arts and media is that because it is constantly evolving, you and your future career can evolve with it and that doesn't mean you have to go back to school for it."

As I took in his words and calming tone, I did feel a little bit better.

"But what about now? How do I finalize a program that will help me get that first job."