In September of 2018 I decided to take a leap of faith and go back to school to get an MFA in Game Design. I don’t have a background in games, my undergraduate degree is in music performance, but I’ve always loved games and when I found DePaul’s MFA in Game Design program I knew this was the path I needed to take.
This may sound ridiculous, but when I enrolled in graduate school I did not expect to be challenged by (and greatly struggle with) deadlines. Without giving the wrong impression about my overall self-confidence, deadlines have never really been a problem for me. Most of my career before going back to school was as a corporate copywriter: deadline city. If I was used to meeting tight deadlines literally every single day then surely I’d be able to handle following a syllabus and staying on top of things in school.
These are just a few of the thoughts that mocked and bludgeoned my consciousness as I fell into panic, disbelief, and about 60oz of cold brew while frantically pulling my first all-nighter to finish a project for school.
What happened?