Alright, here's another standard holiday post. Seems like that's all I've been doing as of late. Better than nothing, though, right?! Sure! So this time, it's Thanksgiving! I hope all of you are enjoying time with your wonderful families, and filling up on loads and loads of delicious turkey. I get to enjoy my Thanksgiving on Saturday, as five years ago I made the not-so-smart-sometimes decision to move five hours away from home. Since I have to be in the cities for work tomorrow, my family tends to push our "holidays" around a little bit. So I spent today cleaning, as is my Thanksgiving tradition (fun, right?), and packing up to go home for the first time in over two months. Thanksgiving is also that one day a year where everyone is supposed to say what they're thankful for. While this is a good thing, I don't really understand why people don't do this every day. It's like Valentine's Day- is that the only day you should be showing love for your significant other and your family? I don't think it should be, but maybe that's just me. :) Anyway, to fall into this tradition, I do hope everyone takes a moment of time today to be thankful for what they have. Even though life sometimes deals us a shitty hand, there are always things to be thankful for. It's as simple as being thankful for the roof over your head, and the food on your table. Things like that, that so many of us forget are actually something to be thankful for, are things that some people don't even have. I know I sometimes get caught up in life too much to remember that I do have a lot to be thankful for, and I suppose it is nice to step back and see that every now and then. Maybe we should all try to get in the habit of doing that more than once a year, huh? ;) Hope you all had a great day! Happy Thanksgiving!
It's Halloween! Unfortunately, I was a grinch this year (wrong holiday, I know), and I did not dress up for work. There were some decent, and some terrifying, costumes that my coworkers pulled off, so at least it was enjoyable to witness. I do have some pretty good costume ideas though for next year, so hopefully I will be able to dress up then. We'll see! I just wanted to write up a quick post to give you all the update that very little has happened. There is not much to update you with, solely because I am still in my lazy phase. I still have a lot of choices to make, and subsequently, many different life paths to prepare for. I feel like 2013 is so far less of a year of change, but more a year of preparations for the craziness that is bound to ensue. I'm still debating trying to get accepted into MCAD next year, but I have some time to work that out. The early acceptance deadline is in January, and school wouldn't start until the fall of 2014, so there is still time. After the busy season at work settles down, I'll be able to figure out whether or not I want to go through with that. That also depends on if I can find a job in the field, and that has not been going spectacularly well. I'm really (not) enjoying the whole "You need 3-5 years of experience to work here, but we won't let you work here to get that experience, because you don't have that experience, so you're shit out of luck" thing. It's less than great. In either case, I have been working on updating my digital portfolio again, and have switched my hosting site to wix.com. I like the appearance of it so far, as it utilizes HTML5 (I believe?), and I think it should help give me a more professional edge than what I am currently using. Now, my great wonderful potentially out-of-reach goal is to move to Chicago. Like, in the city, Chicago. Skyscrapers everywhere right outside your window, Chicago. But that comes with a price, and a very, very hefty one at that. I think in a few years, once my loan debt is diminished, and I am able to get that 3-5 years of experience (!), it would actually be attainable. It's a lofty goal for now, but it's nice to be hopeful and have my sights set on something to work towards. So maybe that was a bit more of an update than I originally thought. It was more of the things that are in my head, and less of physical progress, but it still works for me. Even though things are about to ramp up at work, I'm going to try to make more of an active effort to keep things going and moving forward. I'll be sure to update you all, as things happen. :) And to bid you a final farewell, I have a treat. I give to you, for your viewing pleasure, a photo of my lovely cat, Sprinklemist. I have dressed her up in a too-small bee outfit, well before it was actually Halloween.
She. Looks. GLORIOUS(ly unhappy). Anyway, I hope you guys are all enjoying buttloads of candy and chocolate, and the sugar crash that is sure to plague you tonight. Happy Halloween!
On and off over the past few months, I've been really thinking about going back to school. The education I got at Green Bay was truly great, and it was definitely a good start to what I want to do. But I feel like it was only really just a start. With every passing month, and especially with every passing year, that education and knowledge just gets farther and farther away. I moved to Minnesota with the intention of getting a job in the field, and potentially taking a few classes at the schools out here. MCAD was always something I wanted to do, but just kind of fell along the wayside. And it's fucking expensive, so there's that. Like, really. The cost of two years alone is comparable to my entire bachelor's degree at GB. Even still, it's hard for me to ignore the want to be a part of it. I feel like it would be a really focused education, whereas Green Bay was a little less so. I mean, MCAD is an ART school. With the more focused coursework, there's also that crap-load of competition. Even now, looking at the Post-Baccalaureate program, I worry about not getting accepted, and that really scares me. I think the hardest thing for me, with wanting to be a graphic designer, is and always has been the fear of failing in comparison to the competition. I've always worried about not having enough talent, and I've had the nasty habit of basing this fear on comparisons to other designers. I've worried that if a client doesn't like something I designed, that I would take it personally, like I wasn't good enough at what I do. It's not like accounting, or something along those lines. There isn't just one way to do this. You need to have talent. You need to have knowledge, and skills, and motivation. It's TERRIFYING. It's definitely a hard thing to keep your head up sometimes. I know I do have some talent, but I still worry (quite frequently) that it isn't going to be enough. I just hope that the motivation and desire to keep pushing through will win out over these fears and insecurities. Do I go for it? Apply with the slim hope of even getting in, and then afterwards if I get in, deal with another $30,000 of debt? Or do I just keep trying to learn slowly on my own? This is rough. Sheesh. Anyway. On a more positive note, I have been working on designing a few things over the past couple weeks, to try to beef up my measly portfolio a bit. I suppose that designing a fake save-the-date or two really isn't that different from the projects they assign you in school. It still showcases your skills, and it's still something you can use in a portfolio. And I figure, by the lack of interest in my applications to places thus far (waaahhhh), that a few new designs couldn't hurt. Fake it 'til you make it, right? :/