I feel that I am a little too young to be going through this. Although when I was very much younger and didn’t have a job, my mom went through this and all I could was sit and watch, but now that I’m older, have a job, and can actually manage money, I can understand all the stress she has gone through my whole life.

Sad to say it, but yes, right now we are in a major slump. With everything rising in price, even our rent, and our jobs not doing much about it, its hard. Right now we are looking for a smaller apartment to possible move to, but everything we find is practically the same price we are paying for here in a house! Not only that, but I’m debating whether or not to just get a place of my own. My number one question; “Am I ready for it?”.

I feel like I could do it, but I also want to go back to school and am wondering if I would have the right amount of time to keep a stable job, go to school, and still be able to pay the rent and amenities that come with it? On top of that, I have two cats, and for those of you with pet family members know how expensive some of their things can cost. I’m not necessarily complaining, I love my babies and would do anything for them, I just have to be a little more realistic and think about them when deciding what I will be doing, or I’ll just be setting myself up for failure if I don’t.

Ugh and then there is the whole school thing. YUP, I’m still trying to figure out where to go. My choices at the moment:

The ever expensive Full Sail University (yes, they are an accredited university now)
The somewhat lacking University of Central Florida
The you-must-be-a-first-year-to-get-in-the-film-school of Florida State University
The not really in the mood to get just my AA at Valencia Community College

Sounds exciting, no? Yea, I don’t know…>_>

Today I went to Full Sail for their ‘Behind the Scenes Tour’. Basically, it’s an open house to all visitors, students and family. They hold this event once a month and talk about not only the program prospective students are interested in, but also all of their programs and events.

I just have to say; this school is amazing! Everything they own is state-of-the-art. The students, teachers, and staff are all very down-to-earth people with a passion for this industry. This school has everything any undergraduate to even graduate could want and then some. The film department just got me a little to over excited when we visited all the rooms with equipment after equipment. I felt like running over to the cameras and playing with them! And, oh my gawd, their sound editing systems were HUGE! Bigger then what I’ve seen in a recording studio, it was crazy! They also showed us the many graduates and their accomplishments through out the years, and I have to say mostly everything you see out there has at least one Full Sail graduate on board. I love it!

Of course, where there is happiness, sadness is always at toe. Finally we get to the end of the tour, where we are able to meet with admission and financial aid representatives and faculty. Their film department in the span of 21 months comes out to be a whomping $69,175.00 dollars! That’s $23,025.00 dollars every 7 months. My mother, who accompanied me on this event, jaw dropped when we were told this. I mean, I knew it was expensive but not THIS expensive. Do you know how many loans I would/will need to take out for this? I’d be in debt before I could even start my life. A year and nine months till I’d graduate and then six to seven months later, I’d have to start paying my dues.

And even after all of this has been said and done, I am still interested in going to this school! Woe is me. =(

Sadly, I did not get the job as Westgate. The man called me back and told me that at that time they really needed someone with expert skills in Flash and action-scripting. I’m not going to lie, I SUCK in Flash, but I do know the program, since I had to make a mock company website using Flash and made a menu made purely with action-script, but I guess it wasn’t good enough for them. My hopes of finding a well off job in web design are sinking fast and I feel that I should just stick to freelancing and find a part-time job doing something else. In the end, I need money, no matter how I get it. (OK so it DOES matter how I get, if you get my drift…ha ha)

So, for the rest of this week, I will be trying to find as many grants, loans, and scholarships I can find and fill out an application for them. God only knows I will need them.

For the past three days, I have been working on updating my portfolio. I got a call back from an Orlando consultant, about a timeshare company, CFI & Westgate Resorts, who were looking to hire a graphic designer. He said that he saw my resume on Monster.com and felt that I qualified for the job. All I needed to do now was send an updated version of both my resume and portfolio to him and he would do the rest. So, for these past days I have been updating like crazy, although in actuality I’ve really been working my butt off all day today. On Thursday, when he called, I told him I would have everything to him that day. Sadly the power in my house went out and my mother and I couldn’t get it back on till the next day. By the time it came back on, two days were wasted away and all I could look forward to were Saturday and Sunday. Ready to get down to work on Saturday, errands came up that I needed to drive my mother around for, and so half the day was gone. So really, I’ve been working on updating everything for a day and half now. Not really that bad, considering all I had to add and delete to the site.

I really do hope, I get the job. It sounds great, from what the man told me and what I read on Monster.com. The pay is great, for starting out. ($20 an hour for the first 4 months) Its a 9 to 5 job and that’s what has me in a jumble right now. Since I do also want to continue with my education, if I get this job (which I pray to God I do) then that means that I would definitely try out for Valencia, since Full Sail is basically a 9 to 5 “job” also and that obviously won’t do.

I have finally made up my mind, thanks to myself and others. I will be going to Valencia! Since I really do need a job, this is the wisest choice I can make. As of now, I will be applying for the spring, since some of the classes I want to take are not available for fall. (which kind of already started) Whew, I can’t wait!