Choices!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”- Mark Twain

Choices, choices, choices. You know some people value their life on their availability of options. Lets face it life stinks when you only have 1 or 2 roads to go down. I've been talking with my brother lately about our options in life. He is about to finish his AME or APC or AML I don't know the official name for it but it's airplane mechanic school. He is having to take a look at his options and start to make some concrete plans. Does he quit there and go into the workforce or continue on a bachelors program? Each of those options have another 4 options ie. who,what,when,where. He showed me picture after he mapped out all of his options and it looked like a spider web. His only problem now.. Picking the path he wants to go down.

This has gotten me to really start thinking about my options. About a year and a half ago I decided that I was going to make a positive change. I was going to do what I wanted to do. I was going to give myself options. I have always dreamed of doing something fun and creative with my life. I remember sitting in Career Services class in 9th grade half assed paying attention, but mostly dreaming about "When I grow up I'm going to have fun. I'm going to have a awesome office, working with great people, cracking jokes, working when and how I want to work. Who says work had to serious" I had NO clue as to what line of work that was going to be I just knew I wasn't going to forget my "have fun" attitude. Well 9th grade/high school came and went. Next thing I knew I had been accepted to Ole Miss and I was on my way to college. I thought for sure I would end up with some random liberal arts degree, maybe majoring in Theater Arts, Graphic design, or even Underwater basket weaving. The reality was.. I was told by the Man (i.e. Dad) that if I go to Ole Miss with him paying outrageous out of state tuition I was going to the Business School. I had 2 options. Stay in Jonesboro and go to ASU, or go to one of the nations top rated party schools but have to study business. Obviously I picked Ole Miss and made the best of the situation, by majoring in Marketing. My thought was I would be able to quench my lust for all things fun and creative and my "benefactors" rule of being in the business school.

Fast forward to now (5 yrs since Ole Miss). I got out in the real world and realized marketing guys are not the ones who think of commercials, who picks out design layouts, who come up with crazy gimmicks. They are the ones who sell them. I HATE SALES! Unless I own every part of a product It is hard for me to try sell someone something. People look at a marketing degree and thinks ok this person majored in sales. Marketing is so much more than just sales. Don't get me wrong I understand good marketing equals good sales. What I didn't know is that it was Liberal Arts students who give the "marketing" people stuff to work with. So needless to say I haven't been able to find my type of marketing job yet. Since graduating from Ole Miss I have worked various jobs, just to get by. Which brings me back to my earlier statement about making a positive change. Shannon and I are now at a point in our lives where I am allowed to have options again. She has finished her Masters program and is on track to be licensed and have a great job doing what she loves. Now as for me. Obviously I have been still trying to use the skills from Ole Miss to find a job here in Charlotte. I see stuff that I am qualified for and jobs I could do with out any further education, but I am afraid they wouldn't satisfy my desire to have that "fun and creative" job and lets face it. The phone hasn't exactly been ringing off the hook.

So now I have to look at a few of my options. I can continue to try and find just an ehh "pay the bills" job. I can waste time until the fall and look at either picking another major (digital media design) ,or even getting a masters from UNCC. Or I could go to the Art Institute here in Charlotte as soon as April. With AI I have two major options. Graphic Design which I think I would thoroughly enjoy creating lay outs, logos, packaging, posters, cards, awesome visuals. Or Web Design and Interactive Media, where I would still be able to create some awesome visuals but instead of click, drag, drop I would have to spend weeks writing complex codes of information and have to make sure it looks good an a slew of various browsers and systems. I think I would enjoy either one, but graphic design is obviously going to have a larger pool of competition because it is easier to learn than Web design, but there is a Huge demand for good web designers which means more money and more job security. With everything/everyone going to digital, I think either option is a sound one. I just have to make the choice on what am I going to do and how I am going to do it. My gut says Graphic Design, My head pushes to go to AI in April vs waiting until the fall for UNCC or Central Piedmont Community College. If you have any thoughts or comments please feel free to leave them. Maybe Jay is right and I just need to listen to Mark Twain's advice and throw off the bowlines and sail away from the safe harbor.