It's bloggin time

...while our servers are down. As if Monday's aren't hard enough...now we're just sitting around waiting to work. Ugh, that's the worst.

You know what else is the worst? Wasting talent. Today's topic of conversation is how I'm living in this naive world with my fingers in my ears going lalalalalalalalala in regards to the fact that I am undoubtedly wasting my talents at my current place of employment. And who isn't? We've got a lot of talented people here and all we do is type addresses and phone numbers into white and black boxes full of mundane text. The worst part is that we do this in Adobe Illustrator of all programs. Suddenly the irony is suffocating.

And why are my fingers in my ears in this scenario? Because every once in a while, I'll hear about former colleagues of mine who are doing MUCH bigger and better things. The worst part is that I was the first to get out of the hellhole that was my prior job. I thought I was the cats pj's because I was moving on to the agency world while they were stuck in a world of grocery circulars that everyone throws away. Well, now they've all moved on too and I'M the one who's stuck in the receptacle.

So with all this said, I'm going to play devil's advocate a tad. First of all, I don't ONLY type addresses and phone numbers into white and black boxes full of mundane text. I've had several creative opportunities here of which I've taken advantage in their fullest capacity. I wish there were MORE opportunities, but at least there have been a few. Secondly, my mom is my hero. Like me, she works for a fantastic company that treats its employees very well. I too have tons of perks, benefits, and stability here. With that said, however, like me, it isn't as if my mom gets to express her most wondrous talents at work. No, let me restate that...she expresses her wondrous managerial and organizational talents at work ;) but the creative opportunities are few and far between. So how has she solved this problem? By becoming a published author in her spare time! While authors all over the world are struggling to get noticed and simultaneously trying to earn a living by doing so, my mom writes and publishes her own novels (AND does most of her own PR/marketing!) MEANWHILE earning her regular paycheck! My mom is someone to which I aspire.

Now I know there are the rare people out there who do both: creative, fulfilling career WITH creative, fulfilling hobby/moneymaker on the side. What? Yeah I don't know. It seems impossible, but I'm sure these people exist. But I don't think I'm one of those people. I mean just sanity-wise. With all that creativity 24/7, my brain would most assuredly melt into my spinal cord. And at this point in life, I don't see myself getting, or even WANTING, the crazy 60-70 hour agency art director position. Therefore, it only makes sense to put all of my creative energy into a spare time freelance hobby of some kind. And, like my mom, the added bonus would be making a tad of extra money :)

So while my peers and colleagues move along the advertising and graphic design career path, I'm going to keep my fingers in my ears, lalala-ing MY way down a path where I watch my humble paycheck automatically deposit into my checking account, and yet I am satisfied with the logos, business cards, brochures, greeting cards, and invitations I design for friends and family. Besides, the world needs lowly production artists just like cities need garbagemen right?



[ed. note: Halfway through this blog, my mom emailed me to let me know my beloved CS2 from eBay arrived. SAVE ME HOME COMPUTER COMPLETE WITH GRAPHICS SOFTWARE! SAVE ME!]