Taking the Leap

Jan. 2, 2008. While on my winter vacation of sorts...after several days of thought about my current situation, I decided to take the leap. Finally go out on my own and see what happens. It was time to do the unthinkable and QUIT MY JOB! I set up a meeting with my boss the following day. We spoke, discussed my decision, came to a somewhat amicable agreement and I gave him a very fair 6 weeks to sort things out.


I can't tell you how good that felt. Not the quiting part, or the leaving my job part, but the not knowing what's about to happen next part. I felt like a fresh new person on an adventure. Immediately, I began to think about what to do next. I started to sketch ideas, take inventory and write down plans for the coming year. I was excited!!! Didn't quite know how I was going to make money exactly, but that didn't matter. I just had to stay positive and put the word out there.

OK, so now I'm ready. Ready for the real world. I've got some savings and all the tools I need to be creative. Time to turn my then sparse freelance into a full-time gig. I've got my art studio space for computer, drawing, painting and design. I also have my shop space for making loud noise, bad smells, fire and brimstone. I've got the know how and varied experience. Now all I needed was some work...

Dreaming of change

You ever have a morning when you wake up, and for some reason things are different? You have the feeling that something is going to happen, but you don't know what? A feeling that something needs to Change? Well, one year ago, the day after Christmas, I had one of these mornings. I woke up and realized I was living someone Else's life.

I was working a job, that at some point turned from an interesting venture into a monotonous day to day, and I wasn't happy. My five year plan after college didn't quite go the way I had planned, nor was I really using my degree. I thought for awhile that I would work freelance in my free time and have a day job to pay the bills. Like a lot of creative people, I became wrapped up in the day job and lost track of the career.

I had a dream that night, the night before my strange morning and it made me want to change my life completely. My dream, which was more of a memory, was of me as a ten year old kid. I was in my parents basement taking apart some of the various electrical devices that my dad would accumulate. I believe it was an old telephone and a radio that I had scavenged for parts. The gizmo's, small motors and devices always intrigued me. Then I made something new. I don't know what it was, but it definitely had wires, batteries, spun and made noise... and I was happy. I woke up that morning knowing this; that what made me happy was making things.