*provides more evil hugs* twisted
Oh wow, I never realized there were only 2 schools here in the US for that. I wish you the best of luck with the London one and the potential for an international scholarship. You never know, right? And yeah, GPA doesn't seem to matter much for many things anymore... it's pretty sad.
Unpaid internships are the absolute worst. I remember not being able to get one in college during summer. Sad when free help is turned down; makes you wonder how truly awful the economy really is.
Computer science is usually a safe field, but giving up on your hope of being in an art-related field... that's a tough one. You've put in a lot of hard work and effort for this, but the uncertainty that comes behind not knowing whether or not it will land you a job or into a nice college is an awful thing to experience. To avoid sugar-coating things for you (good advice would be to be honest) - who is to say that you'll be able to get a job even after going through one of these art conservation programs? I guess the best person to ask would be a mentor. Do you know a like-minded, older person with experience in what you want to do that you can just sit down and talk with? You said your supervisors and instructors were supportive, but is there anyone you can really talk to one-on-one about things more in depth? They may be able to help you decide what you truly want to do with your life. Not make the decision for you, of course, but hopefully just lay some foundation for you to choose your path. I know you've probably already thought of this before, but no harm in throwing it out there.
My sister volunteered at an animal shelter for cats and dogs (she worked with the cats mostly) for about a year, where she helped give vaccinations to newly adopted cats and just helped out with the general care-taking of them. She's always had a profound love for cats since we grew up with many in our lives, so she loved volunteering at the shelter whenever she could. Once she was fired from her teaching job, she went back to freelancing commercial art for a bit, but couldn't find any clients because all she ever got was requests to program websites instead of just designing them. She saw an opening for a vet tech assistant at an all-cat clinic and thought she'd be perfect for the job, so she applied. The position didn't require a degree and she had just the right qualifications since she had already been experienced to giving vaccinations to cats. She was hired August 2011 and still works there now. 3nodding I think she got pretty lucky with that, though, as most clinics would have required some sort of medical degree for it.
Yeah, you're exactly right. You don't need an art job to be considered an artist - you already are one! Hopefully you can get out of retail eventually, though; no one should have to endure that awfulness. Well, unless they like it, of course... some people do. But I can tell you're miserable and you deserve better. *hugs hugs!*
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, by the way! And an early Happy Near Year to all!
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