Category Archive: Life

2017 will be the year that I look back on as the one that changed my direction in life. I have made some big decisions about what I want to do in the future. Those plans require a bit of learning and practice, hence the reason it will be in the future.

The biggest change that is coming for me in 2018 is that I will be job hunting. My time at my current job has been great but it is time to move on. While I enjoy what I do, there are other things that I enjoy better. It’s time to explore those options and deeply enjoy work. Right now I have a technical job but want to move to a more creative one. I used to work in a creative field many years ago, so I’m hoping to take that knowledge and build on it.

I am torn if I want to find another job or freelance. I love freelancing. It’s a lot of freedom with your work day but also can be very stressful. I find I can’t fully enjoy one project because I am worried about landing the next one. This will be something I will have to work on should I go the freelancing route.

This year I have been drawing more and exploring art in general. This has been a great experience and something I want to blog more about. Exploring your creative side is so rewarding and fulfilling. I guess I should mention it is fun, too. I would like to start documenting my art journey as a way that I can see my progress and help those who have always wanted to draw to just do it.

I also still want to write. I have a short story that I am working on and am currently revisiting the novel that I wrote for NANOWRIMO a few years back. It is a hot mess and needs major editing and focus. Now I am ready to give it the attention it needs because I have realized that I don’t have to choose just one discipline to pursue. I am pushing forward with all my interests. If I never master any of them at least I tried and did my best. I figure this is a better plan than choosing one thing and looking back ten years down the road wishing I had made a different choice.

Today has been one of those days where I think about what I want to do with my life. I feel like I’m at a crossroads and should make a decision but really don’t want to. It does make me evaluate my ‘dream jobs.’ Are they my dreams or someone else’s?

When I was a senior in high school, I shared a part-time job at a radio station with my best friend. I guess you could say we both worked there but really we shared one job. I think I worked maybe 5 hours a week but that didn’t matter. Even though the job was just filing paperwork mostly, it was exposure to a world I would grow to love.

When it was time to choose a major for college, I chose secondary education as I was inspired by some awesome teachers and wanted to follow in their footsteps. The problem was I had chosen chemistry/physics and as I dropped chemistry and wound up with a D in physics(passed only because of my lab grade), I found myself questioning if this was truly the right choice. I then remembered my shared part-time job and changed my major to Communication. Now as you can probably tell, I really hadn’t given much thought to how much money my career would make. Teachers certainly did not make a lot, and I could guess from my shared job that neither did those in broadcasting. Still it didn’t matter. After having a terrible first semester grade-wise, I was ready to be happy and pull up my grades.

After college I worked for five years in television – which I loved and was very much underpaid. One day we ran a story about a new-ish technical program (Computer Networking) at the local junior college. I was intrigued – intrigued so much that I enrolled and spent two years going through the program which continuing to work full-time. I do not recommend this unless you really don’t care about having a life outside of these two domains.

I graduated and got a job – disappointed that it was lateral move in pay but excited for the future. This new field was great but not the same as television. When I worked in television, everyone wanted to talk about it. TV was something in their home that they enjoyed so naturally they loved to hear about the behind-the-scenes of the local news.  My new career as a computer support analyst left most people pretty quiet. No one wanted to talk about computers. They seemed to hate the subject or didn’t understand it.  It’s sad as I really miss talking about my job to anyone who will listen.

Now I want a change. I grow tired of working with computers for eight hours a day and am ready for something new. My problem? How do I combine the true joy of television with the great pay of computers? Do I really need great pay if I am happy?

I do enjoy writing, and I think I could be a descent humor writer. There are also many other things I enjoy and could do for money. Now it’s time to really examine all options to see if this is what I want and what I’m willing to do to achieve it. Whatever I decide will take time and dedication. I have to be willing to put in the work to reap the reward.

It is a sad day as it is the last weekend of our vacation but what a two weeks we have had. First we picked up our daughter from her grandparents where she had been for a month. Then we made our way to Gen Con for the best four days of gaming. Gen Con really needs to be five or six days because there is so much to do.

This was our first year and we didn’t see everything. In fact we didn’t even make it to all the hosting venues. I really enjoyed the writer’s symposium and wished I had attended more of those events. Now that Gen Con is over, it is time to get busy with goals for this year and beyond.

One seminar I did attend was Writing a Novel in 21 Days. It isn’t writing a novel but preparing to write a novel in 21 days. Each day has a different exercise that forces you to get to know your characters, scenes, and plot. Today I completed Day One for a novel idea and hopefully in 20 days I will be prepared to write it. I am excited as it is an idea that I just can’t seem to get out of my head so it’s best to put it on paper (or screen!) and see what happens.