Last
November I was so lucky to be able to go back to the UK and visit all my
university friends and graduate properly with a silly hat and everything.
After my
stay there however I realized that I and most of my friends were all dealing
with the hard reality of life – or that is, life after university.
The trouble
of starting a generic job (if you even found one) that has nothing to do with
your degree but still trying to find your place in life, dealing with the
depression of leaving university is really hard. The fear of the huge future
that you were supposed to figure out, the successful job you are supposed to
find, the great life you are meaning to be leading right now! That should all
happen straight after university? Right? So very wrong!
I have felt
this gap before in my life, since the Icelandic school system is different but
then it’s mainly a question of which school to choose afterwards. But now I am
in the real deal. Life, the universe and everything.
Universities
should be doing a better job preparing us for the real world. All we get are “get
a good portfolio and apply for everything.” Well that is not good enough. Where
do we start, what should we apply for? What if we start to freelance, what if
we get a job, how do I make a contract? How do I set up payments? How do I even
get that first job?
The sad
truth is that I learned more about the business side of art by listening to
Christ Oatley’s podcast and The Paperwing podcast (http://oatleyacademy.com/paper-wings-show/)
that I did in my entire 2 years of
illustration and 1 year of digital arts.
To make matters even harder for myself
I decided to move back to Iceland were the market is so tiny, that I have no
idea how to get going. All I know is that I want to do art but it’s hard. It’s
also weird meeting my non-art friends, their lives seem to have moved so much
faster, many with good jobs, apartments, kids and I’m still here just going “I
just want to draw”.
Life can
really be complicated, and I’m sure my fellow art related friends struggle with
the same things. But I guess the only thing to do is like my mom says: “take
one day at a time and don’t overthink the future.”
