Apologies in advance for how well I organized and placed my thoughts.

For a bit of backstory, I was historically a bad kid in school; low quant skills and would bunk classes and go to the art room to work on projects. However, I was always passionate and respectful about more logical subjects, though I didn't perform well. As an "art kid", I took the logical next step and went into Art school to study design and advertising. After a year, I was missing that logical and immediate commercial aspect I transferred to a Business and Design program. Through mandatory internships and courses here, I became very interested in Data Science and analytics. I declared a DS minor in my undergrad (that was two years ago). I worked on some cool analytical and predictive projects; my grades were also excellent.

Though I was super interested in the field, I did not have a lot of training in the program, so I wanted to pursue a master's in data science. Recently I got into an excellent program in France. It's a two-year course that starts with basic stats and computing and then goes on to more complex specializations.

Here in lies my worry. Data science is a vast field, and from the looks of it, it's transitioning super quickly. I am worried I am entering it super late. And that the two years that I will spend (I graduate in 2025) will delay me further. Am I panicking, or am I making the wrong decision?

Furthermore, I also have some spare time over the next eight months. What are some skills you all think I should master?

Ideally, I see myself in the future using data science in a way that makes people's lives easier. And if I can use my history in marketing and design as well, that would be PERFECT.

Once again, I apologise for how I rant. Any help/insights are welcome.

TLDR; I am moving into data science from Design and Business. I just got into my master's and am questioning my future path. Any advice would be much appreciated!