Black Sheep by dreamel. Love how the black sheep is dancing with a hat & cane! If he had fingers, he’d so have jazz hands right now.

Lindsay Christensen is a rockin’ interior designer who I “met” through Blogging Your Way, the awesome blogging e-course that Holly Becker of decor8 led earlier this year. It turned out that I was the lone life coach in a sea of designers & crafters, & I loved every minute of it. Lindsay & I have been reading each other’s blogs & tweeting ever since, & I was thrilled when she offered to contribute as a guest blogger! Like some of my other guest bloggers these past two weeks, Lindsay wrote about the  “scenic, sometimes rocky road” that was her journey to finding her passionate, creative career. Isn’t it amazing how we have so many similar stories, yet they’re all so different? Get the tissues ready!

Coming from a small town, I always just assumed I would do something ‘practical’ or science related. I wasn’t interested in business or English, but I was a good science student. So I had a foolproof plan; go to college, major in something science related (psychology, exercise science, marine biology?) and get a steady and secure job after you graduate in 4 years. Right? I thought I’d figure it out along the way. I didn’t know what I wanted to do right out of high school, so when I enrolled at UC Santa Barbara, I was “undeclared in Biological Sciences.” Chemistry, organic chemistry, calculus, psychology, social psychology, French, art history…all the fun (and not so fun) lower division requirements, blah blah blah. I did really love my art history class, but I didn’t even consider it as a major at the time. Come on, you can’t major in art! You can’t be successful that way! Right? After two years I was burnt out and still confused as ever, so I decided to take a break. A break that turned into a five year break. But I wasn’t doing diddly-squat during my break – I was out there in the world, living back in my home town, taking a class or two here or there, working, researching, trying to find my niche, and I also started dating my future husband and we got married…and that leads me here…

In August 2006 I had a great job. Well, it was great for someone without a Bachelor’s Degree, which I did not have at the time (but was still a goal of mine that I was not going to give up). Great for someone my age (25) who had no children, which I did not have at the time. Great pay for where I lived, meaning that my husband and I could live comfortably with my half of our salary, we had better-than-decent benefits, and it was going to go nowhere but up. I had a great boss and great co-workers. My employer even helped pay for my classes. See, I worked at the local county Public Health Department back then. But that was the month that I quit to go to Interior Design school. I started working there three years earlier in 2003 as the “Office Specialist” (aka receptionist), and after working there for two years, I was promoted to a better job within the department. I could have stayed but it was always a personal goal of mine to finish school with at least a Bachelor’s Degree, so I knew I wasn’t going to be there forever. It wasn’t enough for me, and so I wasn’t happy there. That is something that I figured out while out in the real world; that is not my personality and I won’t stay where I’m not happy.

With some encouragement from my boss, and after seeing what a great place it was to work, we decided that I would go to nursing school to be a Public Health Nurse. Notice that I said ‘we’ – my husband and boss were fully on board here. A nurse is a very respectable, practical, rewarding and high-paying job, right? I still didn’t know exactly what I wanted to be, but I had most of the pre-requisites already done (between UCSB and the other 20 colleges I attended in person and online, as my previous goals in school were to be a dental hygienist, diagnostic medical sonographer, ultrasound tech…all of which just never worked out. Do you see a pattern here?) so I finished the last few classes I needed and applied to the nursing school that I wanted to go to. I always just thought it would work itself out.

I was married at this time (still am, I make it sound like I’m not anymore!), and my husband didn’t want to quit his job and move so I needed to stay close to home for school. He didn’t really see why I needed to quit and go back to school in the first place, seeing as I had a perfectly good job, but he was 100% for me to go to nursing school. But that’s a whole other story. We planned to live apart during the week, and then see each other on weekends while I was in school. Two years max. We’d also visit whenever possible and see each other on school breaks, etc. so we knew it wouldn’t be so bad and it would fly by. We live right on the northern border of California, so the closest nursing school was in Oregon, which was fine because I was able to get a “good neighbor” discount on tuition. Anyway, I applied to the Bachelor’s program for this one site and was wait-listed. I looked at that positively; I had good grades, I was sure I was close to the top of the list. I also looked into other schools in the meantime, but no spots came available for me after the deadline had passed (it’s nursing school, hello!!). No biggie, I thought, I’ll just keep working and try again next semester at a few places.

During this waiting time, I grew even more antsy to complete my goals. I didn’t want to be where I was anymore, and I just wanted to get school over with, so I think that the anticipation of working towards a goal, taking classes, and keeping busy kept me interested at the time, but that was getting old. I was starting to realize that I needed something different. I was constantly researching and looking for other career paths that I might be able to take, because I was just not one of those people that can push through during the day and cash in a paycheck with a smile on my face. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my coworkers, but the job itself was simply not fulfilling to me, and I realized that I just couldn’t do that for the next 35 years. Some people can, but I realized very quickly that I wasn’t one of them. I dreaded getting up every day, going to work, spending all day there, and then doing the same old thing the next day after day at a job I didn’t love. Boring. There were other parts of the job that I didn’t enjoy, but I won’t go into that. I’ll just say that I was ready to get out and move on. It was a great job, just not for me at the time. So I applied to more nursing schools, and I was waitlisted again. The deadline passed and I, again, did not get into nursing school (it is SO competitive – not only is there a shortage of nurses, but also nursing instructors so spots are hard to come by). A year of waiting had passed, and I was ready to try something else.

After waiting for what felt like eons, I realized that I really wasn’t that disappointed about not getting into nursing school. I was actually very, very nervous about going; the thought of the practical part really worried me. I still think about scary situations that happened when I was a 15 year old lifeguard! How could I ever move on if I made a mistake, or if something horrible happened to a patient on my watch? I don’t think I could ever get over that! And after working at various jobs in various settings over that five year break, I also realized that I wanted more freedom, more creativity, and more variety in my career. I wanted to be my own boss, take off when I wanted to and be in control of what my days consist of. Plus I wanted to enjoy what I did for a living. But how could I do this and survive, while living in a small town? Is it possible? That scared me almost as much as the thought of accidentally killing someone in nursing school! I was so torn…could I actually do this? And what would my husband and boss think? It was quite a change and I put so much time and energy into this goal.

I found myself secretly checking out online programs in other, creative fields that I really didn’t know much about; graphic design, interior design, photography, wedding planning, real estate staging, even those ‘career certificate schools’ that you see commercials for on TV. But I never seemed to find the right combination or program (have you seen how expensive online programs are?!?!). So I just went for it and applied to the Interior Design Program at California State University, Chico without telling anyone. Not even my husband. And it felt great. It felt right. And the more I looked into the coursework and what an Interior Designer does, it felt better. But how was I going to break the news to them? I don’t remember exactly how it all happened, but everyone around me knew that something was up. To be honest, my marriage was strained at the time, and when something is going on in my personal life I had a hard time focusing on other things, like work. We fought a lot and we had issues that we needed to work out. I needed a change but he didn’t understand, and this was going to be the last straw. I just remember one night, in tears after an argument, I said to my husband “I don’t want to go to nursing school. I want to be a designer!” Wait – what?? It wasn’t pretty – after all I was “changing my mind” AGAIN. I’m sure he didn’t believe me, but I believed in myself so we just let it go. And then I broke the news to my boss. I told her that I applied to a program, I was accepted and I was starting in the fall. I think she understood that I needed a change, both personally and professionally. Everyone else found out I was leaving and assumed it was to go to nursing school. I didn’t try to correct them because I thought they would all think I was crazy!

Eventually they all found out what I was up to and I was gone, and from the very Intro to Interior Design class, I knew this was for me! It’s a lot of art and creativity, but also a lot of hard work, math, science, construction, engineering, communications, psychology, business, advertising, computer science, graphic design and life. I enjoyed everything that I learned, especially from my invaluable internship, and every single class has been worth it’s weight in gold to me. The funny thing was, Interior Design was the ‘black sheep’ of the art department, but it didn’t fit in anywhere else, either. And I feel like that sums it up; that is me. I wasn’t sure where I fit in, I had a million different interests, and others couldn’t see my intentions, but now I know what I want to do and am in control of what I do for the rest of my life and of my happiness. It all just seems to work out like it’s supposed to. I’ve also met some great people, made some really great friends, learned a lot from a lot of different, talented people and love this new community that I am a part of…in person and online with blogging (like my fellow BYW’ers like Michelle!)!

And just to let you know, my husband and I worked everything out – being apart actually really helped us get over our little hangups and we are ridiculously in love again, and more than ever. I FINALLY graduated at the age of 27, and while 5 months pregnant with our daughter. We didn’t want to waste any time, you know? I also get to stay home with her while I write this and I couldn’t ask for more. Blame any typos on her because she’s on my lap and trying to help me write this! It’s definitely a slower start working for yourself, and the pay isn’t the same (yet!), but I’m confident that it will all be working out exactly like I want it to be someday, because it really is all up to me. And the fact that I love what I do is worth more than any amount of money ever could. I really believe that giving someone a beautiful space can change lives and bring you happiness just as much (but in a different way) as nursing them back to health can.

Thank you so much for reading, and again, thank you Michelle for giving me the chance to tell my story and maybe inspire a few others who are unsure of taking the leap to the creative side. Be honest with yourself and do it for you, no one else.

Related posts:

1. What’s Holding You Back From Your Dreams?
2. Time for a Change
3. Grown-Up Gig: Creative Entrepreneurial Endeavor Developer

Tags: Great Guest Post

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 5:19 am and is filed under Clear Careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.