OK this is going to be a bit incoherent because, truthfully, my own thought process is all but clear on the matter.
In a nutshell:
First, I want to know if I should apply to MA programs for history in the fall. I am reluctant to because there are so few (if any) funded ones and taking out loans for grad school in the humanities is a recipe for lifelong indebtedness! However, an MA would be good because it would boost my "marketability" in the general job market, would let me figure out if I wanted to pursue a phd, and would enable me to get into a better program if I do choose to pursue a phd (I am currently a senior about to graduate at the "nowhere state university" that is thrown around these boards a lot haha). So that is one problem: Should I even bother going for an MA.
Second, I love writing a lot (What a feeling when you know you've written an epic line that damns an historical figure or have finally worked in a movie or song reference in a discreet but effective way!). I love the sport of MMA (mixed martial arts) a lot. Towards the end of my senior year (a couple of months ago leading into now) I realized that I actually liked writing about MMA more than I liked writing about history! (:unsure:) I was really kind of upset about this because it seems like a bad thing. But is it really that bad? Could the outlook for sportswriting be bleaker than that for PhDs in the humanities? I actually know more about MMA (and the historiography of MMA history but this is due to the fact that the MMA history books that have been published can be counted on one hand thusfar) than about my subfield (not that I don't know anything about my subfield though). So really I'm like unsure of what to do about it. I'm considering writing a journal article about MMA and submitting it to a sports history journal I have in mind. I just really love the sport and feel it would have more opportunities since it is the fastest growing sport in the world and the professoriat is doing anything but.
A possible solution could be to try and make something pertaining to MMA work and if that fails go to grad school but then I wouldn't have anyone to write letters for me when I finally did go since I would have been out of college for however long. This added to the fact that the letters wouldn't mean much since of the whole "nowhere state university" pretty much means that its apply this fall or bust.
If neither of these things work would I have to go back to college and get a "real" degree (engineering, math/science, nursing, business, etc.)?
So...what are all your thoughts on this? What should I do?
Sorry for all the rambling. I just needed to tell people (nobody I know gets besides a music major I know haha) Go ahead and sack me or flame me or whatever you want.