There was a girl in my class growing up who knew she wanted to be a doctor since Kindergarten. Needless to say - I was not blessed with this profound life calling at the tender age of 5. I've always thought I'd be great at very many things. Therefore, it's always been difficult for me to decide and land on just one.
I've always worked hard, learned hard, and did well in school - getting straight A's, becoming salutatorian of my high school, etc. - but I never took time to focus on what it is that I am truly passionate about, what it is that makes me come alive. (Maybe we're not all supposed to know at age 5...or 18 for that matter.)
I suppose I always thought it would find me.
And eventually, it did.
It found me after getting a dual Bachelor's degree in Film Production and Creative Writing. It found me after countless in between jobs, trying to figure it out and pull it together. It found me after deciding that teaching was my calling, and after going back to school for 2 and half years to pursue it. It found me after substitute teaching for three years while going to school for my Masters, and then after landing a job at my favorite school in Queens.
What I'm truly passionate about - the job that would make me come alive - found me while I was smack in the middle of a job that didn't.
After only two years as a classroom teacher, I left. It was not the right fit for me. My heart was leaning me toward what I always knew was there, what I dismissed for so many years because I never thought I could make a living doing: design.
This blog is testament to how much I love web design, writing, and photography. My memory keeping hobby is a testament to how much I love paper, letters, text, colors and scheming them together in a way that communicates. Throughout my time as a teacher, I'd come home from work, and want to drown myself in all that I mentioned above. Lock me in my craftroom and leave me to create! That is what will make me happy, I realized.
Armed with this realization, I made the decision to resign from teaching. I saw my class through to June, and then would not be coming back to teach in September. Instead, I enrolled in Shillington School: a 3-month long graphic design program aimed at teaching beginners with no scholarly knowledge of graphic design the technical skills to land a job. I attended each and every class, absorbed like a sponge, and came out with a portfolio I'm proud of and the confidence to successfully work at any design studio that would hire me.
Here I am today, with more of an understanding than ever that I want design to be my job. I want to create something everyday, and get paid doing it.
Of course, throughout this career change from working as a special-ed classroom teacher to studying and pursuing graphic design, I wrote about it.
Here are some of the posts that chronicle my journey:
the intial 'shift' that occurred
bathtub prayers, not knowing what to do, and then the answer in a Oprah magazine
a strength and weaknesses exercise I completed on teaching
crafting at 4:30am instead of the teacher work I woke up for
intense daily struggle and anxiety
5 months since posting about the 'shift'
finishing my first year teaching
what being a tecaher looks & sounds like in late August
me - sooo less naive about the start of my second year
first week back at school and thoughts
twinge of something more out there I could be doing
it getting to me, and me taking it out on the ones I love
a poem on how I want my future work day to look and feel
what I should be doing being made clearer and clearer everyday
the fears that emerge when thinking about changing careers
going in to work on a Saturday
some good things, some bad things
finally telling them "I'M NOT COMING BACK TO TEACH NEXT YEAR"
a few days of school left and thoughts
the final culmination of every above post
changing careers is hard, even after the decision to do so is over
September came, and it was BACK TO SCHOOL, but not for me
THE INEVITABLE FEAR THAT COMES WITH EMBARKING ON ANY NEW ADVENTURE
my Design School Diaries:
I graduated in December of 2013, spent all of January 2014 getting my resume and online portfolio together, and had my job with We R Memory Keepers by February. Four months, and two created paper collections for them later, American Crafts purchased We R and my position was terminated. This is great news because a couple of months later, I was hired by me & my BIG ideas and I am getting paid to blog, design, and craft for them. Let me repeat that: I AM GETTING PAID TO BLOG, DESIGN, and CRAFT. I'm having a blast.
Changing careers and choosing to pursue design was the best decision I could have ever made for myself. Then again, I think it was the decision and the path I was on the whole time anyway. ;)
I hope this has helped any of you out there contemplating a career change.
Some of my advice if you're thinking about changing careers:
5 steps to take if you want to change careers, but don't know what to change to
my take on Life After Teaching
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I'd like to end by listing some of the happy moments from my two years as a classroom teacher. Even though the job wasn't right for me, I truly loved the kids and some moments were downright magical:
an acrostic poem of me by Bianca
i loved decorating the classroom
