SAFETY VS. CHANGE
As my friends prepared for their last semester of college, I was preparing for my junior review. (For the non-art school people, junior review is a progress review basically determining if you can be a senior or not. I had to present my work from the past few years to the design board and then sat through a critique. So much stress.) Anyways, during the critique I was told that I am "too safe" when designing and that I need to take more risks or I won't get anywhere.
"Too safe." Although they were only referring to my design, my whole world was turned upside down the moment that was mentioned. It hit me – I'm too safe in life too. I'm scared of change, I hate taking risks, and I'm terrified if I don't know what's going to happen next.
I didn't take any of the typical design studio classes this past semester (they weren't available so I was forced to try something different. Ugh.) I took many discussion-based classes, which were surprisingly eye opening. They gave me the kind of determination you get after watching a really great TED Talk. Every day I inched closer to finding my future dream job, I worked on projects that I was passionate about, and I redesigned my blog with full intentions of not caring what people thought about it.
But then summer came around and I went back to my safe routine. Plans to go back full-time at Bare Minerals surfaced and I grew too nervous to relaunch my blog (exhibit A: the time stamps on my past two posts lol). But the words "too safe" flooded my thoughts continuously and I grew frustrated with myself. I realized I wasn't truly happy stuck where I was.
About a week ago I decided to take a risk (omg) and quit my job (OMG). As much as I love makeup, I wasn't sure that's where I wanted to take my design career. Turns out job hunting is more stressful than finals. I found myself getting down on myself when I didn't hear back from anyone immediately and wondered why God wasn't hearing my prayers. A friend told me, "just wait for it :) He is going to blow your mind :)" (Thx a million, Josiah! <3) I held onto that hope that God would come through with an amazing plan for me. All I needed was patience and perseverance.
Over the next couple of days I began to see His plan unfold right in front of me. There were so many options and amazing opportunities to choose from and eventually everything fell into place. Today I am taking those risks that I've been too scared to take. I put in my two weeks at Bare and I'm relaunching this blog regardless of judgement. I am stepping foot into the freelance design world and beginning a new job in fashion hoping to one day bridge those two together. I'm immensely excited and terrified at the same time but at least I'm happy, because that's what matters...and God is GOOD. (Finally) cheers to a great summer with a little safety and bigger risks!
X mad
