Three's a Crowd

Warning: Long post ahead. It's a good one though. I think.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my life and how I want it to go after college. I'm not sure I really want to be a big time journalist. I really like the no-pressure environment of high school photography. I would be perfectly happy covering local news. I used to think that I couldn't be happy unless I was covering a big story. I don't think that matters anymore.

Honestly, I think I'd rather teach.

But I'm not giving up my Photojournalism degree to do so. Nor do I want to get rid of my Japanese degree. So the simple answer is to just add a teaching degree, right?

Wrong.

Education degrees are a pain in the ass. You have K-12 education degrees, elementary education degrees, secondary education degrees, special education degrees, counseling degrees. Not to mention subject specific degrees - English, History, Journalism, any foreign language you could imagine, any science, the list goes on.

So, as it is in my case, if you want to teach journalism or English or perhaps a foreign language you need a degree for Journalism Education and English/Language Arts Secondary Education and a Japanese Education degree. Oh, plus it would be a good idea to keep that Japanese major since you want to know about the culture too. Oh, and you might want to add an English major...the curriculum for the English Education degree gets you 80% there anyway. So that's already 5 majors. Do you really want to keep that journalism degree?

And that's where my dilemma starts. Well, no. Actually. Let me back up.

Mizzou only offers that English/Language Arts degree. It has nothing, not even recommendations, for what courses you should take if you want to teach Journalism or a foreign language. I don't think it's too much to ask that they provide something like that for students. Unless they just don't teach journalism or foreign languages at their high schools. When I spoke to an advisor in the Education department, she told me that I could receive accreditation for teaching those subjects after I graduated. At the very least I would have to take (and pass) a test. I imagine it would include taking a few more courses through some government teaching instruction center.

So that's the first part of the dilemma. I can't get what I want at Mizzou. Even if I just did three majors - Photojournalism, Japanese, English/Language Arts Secondary Education - I would be staying in college for 5 years, at least. And then it would take me a while to get accredited in what I want. And even more time to get approved for teaching in other states (the advisor claims this isn't as hard as it sounds, that I just tell the college to recommend me for teaching in whatever state and it happens, but I seriously doubt that).

So to solve this dilemma I look to transfer. Ball State University is one of those "up and coming" colleges. I strongly considered it before finally deciding to attend Mizzou. Actually, no, that downplays it. I initially wanted to go there more than Mizzou. I loved the campus and how things worked there. It has a strong Journalism school and a great Education program (at least in Indiana) and, as an added bonus, has a Japanese major. In fact, you can even major in Japanese Education! The opportunities for major combinations are astounding to me! I could get a Photojournalism degree, a Journalism Education degree, an English/Language Arts Education degree, a Japanese Education degree and a Japanese degree! And since a few of those are rather related...it's not unreasonable to think I could do that in 5 (total) years.

But then I have to consider all of this on a larger scale. Not just the next few years, or until I graduate college, but my life overall. Do I want to be a photojournalist or do I want to be a teacher? Well, both. I think I'd like to work for a local newspaper until I'm ready to have kids (marriage is assumed somewhere along the line before that). When the kids are, let's say, 5 to 7 I think being a teacher is a good idea. But wouldn't it be better to just drop the photojournalism aspect and just teach? A large part of your career is establishing yourself. If I apply for a teaching job more than 10 years after I've graduated, despite the fact that I have a teaching degree, people will look at me and wonder what on earth makes me think I'm a good candidate. I have no experience. After 10 years. No one is gunna want to hire me.

So I think, after talking at length with family, I've finally reached the decision that I should drop my photojournalism degree but take as many photojournalism electives as possible. I'll get majors in Japanese Education, Journalism Education, and Secondary English Education. Probably an English minor and a Japanese major will go along with that. I hope to accomplish this all in 5 years with one summer abroad in Japan (b/c I want to, damn it).

And I will get these from Ball State.