It feels surreal to be sitting here, writing this.
Owen (5) and Emmett (2), the most important things I've ever had a hand in creating
Just a few short weeks ago I was sitting at a different desk, behind a different computer, spending altogether too many hours on conference calls and firing off emails at all hours of the day and night. I was stretched thin, trying to keep up with an increasingly busy schedule at work and a never-ending busy schedule at home. (The inevitable crunch that happens when two busy, driven people have two high-energy, hilarious, sweet, wild boys). It wasn't sustainable. And though I loved many aspects of that role, it wasn't what I truly wanted to be doing.
So I left.
And now I'm here.
When I was a kid I remember buying rolls of trace paper and some fancy mechanical pencils and spending hours drawing floor plans. Imaginary houses for imaginary people, sure, but I agonized over where to put the windows to maximize the light, and how to set up their furniture as if they were real clients. I had friends too, I swear... this was just my favorite creative outlet for many years. Fast forward to my sophomore year at Connecticut College, where I was debating between majoring in art or psychology (art therapy, anyone?) and flipping through pamphlets about various abroad programs. As soon as I saw an architecture/art history program in Florence, Italy, my heart grew wings and my mind was made up. I was as happy as that little girl drawing fake floor plans again. And so it was that I traveled around Europe soaking up art and architecture like a sponge, and came home to double major in psychology and architecture, combining two of my true passions. After graduation I dabbled in design school (not for me -- it felt somewhat redundant to what I had just done for 3 years) and ultimately found a temporary home as a visual merchandiser for Crate & Barrel, creating tablescapes and designing fake bedroom scenes and perfecting the art of displaying product so you couldn't help but buy it (combination of art & psychology again!).
Ultimately my drive to ditch the retail hours and make a little bit more money overtook my penchant for setting up products in pretty displays, and I changed gears and tried my hand at Human Resources for a consulting firm. That starter job morphed into a nearly 10 year career in corporate learning and development (and a master's degree in Organizational Behavior with a focus on Leadership Studies) that I never expected. It was a wonderful, enriching, challenging period of growth for me.
But, as they often do, things came full circle. My passion for design came back with a vengeance (or perhaps never really went away at all), and no amount of side projects or DIYing in my spare time or helping friends pick paint colors via text messages was going to scratch that itch.
So I'm giving it a shot.
And not just an "Eh, I'll see where this goes" kind of shot. A real shot. I quit my job, rebalanced my life and I'm ready to start this new chapter.
Call me, maybe?