I Have a Question

If you were going to do a Master's Degree, would you do it in something practical, or something you love? Feedback, please...

Here's the story -

I have always been an excellent student. Undergraduate, I started as a psychology major, but after taking note that all the psych professors had unruly thinning hair, pants 3 inches too short for them, and were just generally extremely geeky looking, coupled with the thought that I didn't want to wind up stuffed in a 6x6 corner office somewhere without a window, I bailed.

I went running to the theatre department as fast as I could, following my heart which was out about three paces ahead of me, overjoyed, because I was finally going to listen to its truest desires. I was going to sing to the stars and the moon, tap dance up the walls and on the ceiling, I was going to act (up at least.)I was going to design theatre sets and costumes for my favorite plays. I could feel the blood pumping through my veins. I felt so alive.

Well, as it turned out, I got cast in every play Tennessee Williams or Lillian Hellman ever wrote (which blew my mind because I never thought of myself as the Southern Belle.) I made history in my Meisner class, and in my Musical Theatre Improv class. I was pressed to go forth to grad school as a scene designer by the Chair of that program, and lauded by the Costume Design professor for my artistic talent.  I became involved in the then unofficial Film Program and excelled at screenwriting.

I decided to go to grad school for film, and was accepted by two prestigious universities. I decided to follow my professor and go all the way across the country to study Film Production. About three quarters of the way through my first year, I learned that I had some really bad thing wrong with me, which wound up being Systemic Lupus Erythamatosis. I didn't finish my degree because I was three thousand miles from home, all by myself, with no support of any kind.

Feeling like my dream was sort of ripped out from under me, I returned home to Arizona to get diagnosed, and try to discover a way to live in harmony with the wretched disease that was, at the time, threatening my life. After I stabilized, I went back to school to take a few art classes, and eventually moved to California to study animation. I wound up getting hired by Universal Music Group, and singing with a band in Pacific Palisades, California. Though my dream had been to write movies, I was getting closer all the time.

After September 11th, the new owners of Universal (Vivendi) used the attacks and slowed economy as an excuse to thin all experimental departments at Universal, and I found myself almost out on the street (luckily, I had two jobs.) Every entertainment company was laying off, so I went sideways and decided to become a teacher. I had always been good with kids. Great with kids. My aunt had been a teacher all of her working life, no matter that every other person in the family was an artist or actor or musician or some combination of those three.

Well, now I need to go back to the university to clear my teaching credential. I figured, while I'm there, why not get a Masters. After all, in searching the want ads, I've noticed that a Bachelor's these days will get you a managerial job at the fast food chain that you tried to avoid working at at all costs by going to college. So, I'm thinking, "Get a Master's in Creative Literacies in Education."

Then I'm thinking, "No, Andrea. You should do what you really want to do. Why get a degree in education when you want to get a degree so you can switch jobs.  You have come home after after-school tutoring and planned lessons until 9 o'clock at night, only to have them walk in the next morning and tell you that you show evidence of lack of planning. You are miserable, have become physically ill from this, and just had a lump removed from your breast that you believe was a noxious lump of poison grown out of your inability to effectively cope with the harrassment you have been subjected to at school. Why would you want to continue this?

But teaching is noble, right? And I'm helping so many kids, changing so many lives, right?

I've always wanted to be a writer, work in the entertainment industry, or just write stories. I wouldn't mind working here in Los Angeles at a University teaching about the entertainment industry eventually. I have good connections. I know 'em all. Spielberg, Katzenberg, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hanks, Sally Field, Frances Fisher, drop name here, drop name here... I've always been an excellent writer as well.

I feel foolish for being confused this late in the game of life, but I am me to the core, and "me" sees every side of things, always.  I need feedback. I need advice. I have three choices.  Of course the education degree program would be the easiest to enter, because they need teachers. It would also gurantee employment (the likes of which I have mentioned above, possibly.)  I have an insatiable desire for knowledge, and am a lifelong learner. I also have a Los Angeles-sized house payment to consider. Should I do an M.A. in Education, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, or an M.F.A. in Writing for TV, Film and Media. HELP!!! S.O.S. Send out the National Guard. Give me some feedback, please.