what do you want to be when you grow up?

I wanted to be an artist…

I remember the first time I was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I remember writing it in my shaky 5 year old hand, “I want to be an artist.”

Then I spent my first three years of college doing something totally different. I guess you could say I just didn’t believe in myself and wasn’t confident in my abilities or maybe I just wanted to spend six years in school racking up the student debt. I can promise you it wasn’t the latter.

Finally, armed with the confidence that comes with age, I started an all new four-year program in Fine Arts. I did have a marked weakness when it came to art classes, I despised making messes. The paint, paper, clay, and materials to create most art was just too much for this efficiency-centric girl. I was raised by a father in management in the automotive industry. Efficiency was everything. Making messes and creating a hundred iterations was against my deeply ingrained sensibilities.

But graphic design? Yes. That was my realm. Ctrl-Z is life. If only it worked on everything. No messes, no clean up, no ruined clothes or stained floors. Just a laptop, a cozy chair and a tumbler of iced peppermint mocha latte and I could get down to business. The sky’s the limit when I have a laptop in my lap and an idea in my head.

It also means my children climbing all over me can’t inhibit my creations. Imagine oil painting with a baby on your lap. Or sculpting with a toddler running between your legs. If they bump me while I’m working…Ctrl-Z.

I also have something most creative brains lack: an ability to see from the perspective of a non-creative person. I was so right down the middle during career placement tests the only thing they could suggest to me was teaching. Turns out my right-down-the-middle brain is also great for understanding and interpreting clients without overshadowing their ideas with my own creative ego. I pride myself on being able to do this and it’s made me good at creative management.

Overall, I am creative, efficient, perceptive and broad minded. For what I lack in time as a mother of five young children, I make up for with adaptability and attention to the desires of the client.