Back to School... for Massage Therapy?

I have a bachelor's degree in Painting, and I am certified to teach art. My teaching certification is presently gathering dust on a shelf, relegated there by this crummy job market and virtually zero funding for education in this country. I'm certain after three years it's also infested with weevils. So what should an artist, working in an unrelated and unfulfilling industry, do as his next career move? MFA program? Nope. I'm headed to massage therapy school.

I have come to a conclusion recently. What I am doing is not as important as being engaged in something that agrees with my worldview. In other words, I don't have to be making money with my art. Make no mistake, I'm still trying to do that. But I need to do something that is going to make me feel at peace again. The corporate grind is eating me up. After visiting the school and talking with my wife, this feels like where I belong.

I need to make art in tranquil environs. Anxiety and upheaval are not good for my art. Many artist have opposing ideas, I'm sure. But after all the yoga and meditating I've done this is what I need. I want my life to be dedicated to healing.

When I see my yoga teacher in her sweats and covered in tattoos I think to myself, clearly you have nothing to do with mainstream society. Whether that is true or not, I don't know. But I know that I need to be with people on that plane. This corporate life is not for me. In my clear thinking times I can be grateful for what my corporate job has allowed me to do and what is has taught me. But I need to move on. I'm excited to start my new endeavor and think it will inform my art in ways I haven't even thought of yet.