Is it too late...?

[NickWilde]

Hi everybody. I hope you're all having a wonderful day.

Unfortunately, I'm currently at a loss... and I'd appreciate any and all insight.

Some Background Info :

I am currently around the junior/senior level in college (I changed majors after my first year and now I just recently decided to double major in Game Design and Character Animation). Going into college, I was fortunate in that my first two years went well. However... after that, it all went VERY downhill. Long story short, I had a mental and emotional breakdown, and rather than taking time off school or seeking help, I foolishly decided to continue college anyway.

Not surprisingly... my grades suffered tremendously. I started to not care anymore. The subsequent semesters did not fare better, and after all was said and done, I'm currently at a 3.16 (and I heard a lot of grad schools want 3.5's...)

However (and this might seem silly, but it's true, thankfully, after watching Disney's Zootopia during the Summer 2016 semester, I was so blown away by everything; I especially loved the characters and their voices. As such, I became very passionate about learning Character Animation and 3D Modeling that I added it as a major, so now I am double majoring (I am working my butt off to make sure my portfolio is good enough to get me into this program). Summer 2016 was the first time since Summer 2014 in which I did not have a C grade or lower in a class. I feel I'm finally starting to come out of my breakdown and "wake up", but... I'm just so worried that now it's too late.

I have big dreams and aspirations; I want to move to California (specifically Los Angeles), I want to go to grad school for animation there, I ultimately want to work as a character animator at Disney, and... I just overall can't see myself doing anything else but digital media; like films and games. It would kill me to not be able to do these great things because I had 2 bad years.



I guess what I want to know is... despite having a rocky 2 years... is there still hope for grad school? Have any of you did poorly and then turned it around and made your dreams come true? I know deep down in my heart that I am going to aim for that "upward trend" regardless as that is probably my best shot but... a part of me keeps eating away at me telling me that I already messed up, it's too late, what's the point, etc... I have just never wanted something so bad in my life. In one way it's a blessing because this passion and determination is helping me get through it all, on the other hand it's a curse because this passion is also what is making me refuse to give up, thereby putting me through it all in the first place...

 

And my apologies if this is long.

Edited October 24, 2016 by NickWilde
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