1. Work.
Two years ago, if you'd asked me, I would have said "I want to be a graphic designer when I grow up!" I thought it was my passion. The only thing I could do. I couldn't manage because I had to design. I took great pride in my work, but after almost ten years of doing the same stuff, working with the same clients, I started realizing that what had once been my passion had become my prison. I was afraid to leave because it was the only thing I'd ever done. Many, many self-doubts rose up and plagued me as I worked through the need for something different and the heartache of letting go of something that was important to me.
My last day as a designer was the day after my birthday. It was hard. I have learned a lot in the past two weeks, so much so that I think my brain is about to explode. There is so much to the company that I only knew the surface of and now I'm learning the side opposite marketing. I love having the opportunity to learn. I feel that my path has opened up so many possibilities that I wasn't allowing myself to even consider when I was in "Design!! Only design for-EVAR!!!" mindset. One of the things that I'm doing as a part of my change in jobs is taking this horribly hideous test that's something required in our industry (that I've taken and failed twice about 7 years ago). I've balked at trying to take it several times since then. It's going to require a lot of time studying, time taken in the evening with practice tests and all sorts of similar brain-stuffing.
2. Writing.
This technically started last November with the whole foray into NaNoWriMo. But one thing it's showed me is that I can be a stubborn bitch when it comes to seeing out a goal. It may take me a while to come around. (Especially if you ask my husband - he claims he's been asking and prompting me to write for years and years. I can safely say that it's probably only been maybe two...) I've been writing with a group of City of Heroes players for somewhere around 7 years, so the idea isn't foreign. At least, the idea of writing in general's not foreign. Writing a story where I have to think up all of the characters and make sure they're all their own person, think up the world they live in, think up the conflicts, love interests, sorrows... That's the part that's foreign.
So, I did NaNoWriMo last year. I wrote my 50,000 words in a month (and I'm still pretty surprised about it...) And now I have a stack of paper sitting on my desk that's been mocking me because I'm not sure how to go about "finishing" it. I mean, I [i]know[/i] what I need to do, but when I sit down and try to take that first step, I'm paralyzed. I need to create the world that my characters live in. I need to learn more about the characters themselves. I need to read what I wrote. My goal for the year is to learn everything I can about writing, editing, maybe even publishing. And to do it!
3. Me.
Yup. I'm strange. My whole world's been flipped around because of a decision I made. I don't think I'm done yet either. I've learned a lot about myself in the past year and I just see it continuing - at least I hope it continues! I mean, I've never set goals for things I've wanted to do within a time period. Now I've done it twice - once with NaNo and I whooped that one in the face! And now with my goal to write my story. (Can't quite figure out why I'm writing my blog post instead... but just go with it. ^_^)
One of the things I would like to do, if I can make time with the forum writing, and the story writing, and the studying, and the learning, is to try and write up a blog post of some sort at least once a week. This one's hard for me because I really don't want to post stuff that's crap "I ate tuna and mac'n'cheese for dinner! yay for me and my tuna!" If I'm gonna post it, it needs to mean something to at least me, and hopefully have something that could be inspiring or helpful to others. And if my goal is not just to make a blog post about crap, that my goal is actual meaningful posts, then that means it takes time and that means I need to find and make it! (Oh my god - that's three actual goals! I might just die of shock right now...)
So, yeah. This year, only one month in, is starting off a lot differently than many years in the past. Now that I've gotten this written out, I'm gonna post it and start on my world.
Ta for now!
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