graphic design and teaching

So, I have a new job…

I’m doing graphic design for Lasting Impressions/Memory Mixer. (memorymixer.com) Pretty good job, liking it okay. Honestly, it’s different than I thought it would be. I thought I’d get to do WAY more photoshop. Turns out I’m working with InDesign and Adobe Illustrator more than PS, at least this week. I’m good with that — after all, I took the job because I loved learning to do more with the software.

The job has a frieking long commute (Provo to WX) but they’re really sweet about it. I work four ten-hour days, and get to work one of them from home. So I’m only in the office on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Monday night I stay with my family so I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning.

It’s been really hard to think about not teaching in the fall. REALLY hard. There’s something so invigorating about all the plans and preparation. I mean, I don’t get quite the same thrill anticipating working with photoshop. It’s more of a thrill associated with accomplishing projects. (With school, there is no end to any project until June.) So it’s a different type of excitement, but I’d say I like PS as well as teaching. I couldn’t do either, exclusively, for a lifetime.

That’s one thing I really admire about men: They’re supposed to pick a career and do it — every day — for the next few decades of their life. I think, could I really do that? Could I really just do the same series of tasks, no matter how much I like them, so endlessly? So monotonously? I doubt it. Nice thing is, kids grow up, so about every five years, the locus of your energy has shifted somewhat. Plus I can choose what to do with the limited me-time that I can find intermittently.

But I have a secret consolation to the sorrow of leaving teaching. And next month I will tell you about it.

stella shea