Between art or mom?

I’m a big believer in Joseph Campbell’s advice to follow your bliss.

You obviously love and respect your mother. That is wonderful and admirable. You appreciate all that she has done for you, also wonderful.

You have to follow your dreams. It sounds like right now art is your bliss. When I was your age I wanted to be a musician. I was always strong in science and math and my parents imagined me being a scientist or an engineer. My high school apptitude test said I was best suited to be a chemical engineer. I wanted to be a musicain though. I decided I would be happier as a poor musician than being successful at anything else.

Years later I am working in a technical field instead of being a musician. Several times my mom has said that I wasted a lot of time and money studying music. The thing is that music is what I had to do when I was 18. I think that if I forced myself to study something I wasn’t as enthusiastic for that I wouldn’t have done well anyway. Years later when I discovered computers and networks I became enthusiastic about them as well.

Hmm well if you’re going to further education, why not take a couple of classes in teaching? if you don’t like it, then you can tell your mom you tried but dont find teaching interesting…

And what exactly do you mean by art? do you want to become an artist? Yes that field isnt exactly the most stable and it is harder to find a job than say becoming a teacher, but you need to follow your dreams…

There’s always a compromise, see if you cant double major, do both a teaching degree and take art classes… if you have trouble finding a job as an artist then you could fall back on your teaching degree…

Your mom just wants a secure future for you… She just wants for you to be happy and safe…