31 May 2011

Wants and Desires

So, last week, I had the opportunity to go hear a good friend of mine, LaRita, speak at a conference (more on that later).  In the midst of her talk, she revealed that she is taking what I consider (and I'm pretty sure she does, too) to be a HUGE leap of faith and will not be coming back to the college this Fall, so that she can focus on a project near and dear to her heart (more on that later, too... when she gives me the go ahead that her website is up and running...) When she said it, I admit to being a bit scared for her.  Because, even though we're not full-time employees, we still have a bit of security in our classes.  But, I understand her need to focus.

After her presentation, we went to lunch and talked about her reasons for taking the semester off, which got me to thinking about what I want for my own future.  I mean, of course, there's the "win the lotto and live high on the hog" wishful thinking, but I'm realist enough to know that's not likely to happen (partly because I never buy lotto tickets... yeah, you see my point!)

So, what I want: I want to be comfortable.  Not rich (okay, I'll take rich if anyone wants to give it to me, but I'm not greedy!) And yes, I could probably go get myself an office-type job and achieve that for myself. But, I don't deal well with office jobs... So what I really want is a way to be creative and make decent money.  Part of the reason I went to see LaRita speak is so that she could show me another aspect to my experience that I can put to work for myself--corporate training. After all, I am a Teacher... So that's one of my summer projects.

Now, what about desires?  To me, a desire is stronger than a mere want, and I spent this weekend pondering what my desires for my future are.  And really, I want to always be creative.  I want to always have that creative outlet, and in an ideal world, I want to profit from my creativity (this is one of the reasons I love teaching...) But, LaRita brought to my attention that I not only can teach pretty much any field within communications (okay, I might need to do some research), but also several crafty-type subjects, and that there are places where that sort of class are not only popular, but in some cases in demand.  So that's my another of my summer projects...

And finally, since my hectic-beyond-busy Spring session is over, I'm finally able to focus once again on my jewelry making, and another sumer (and beyond) project that I really want to make work for me: Stampin' Up!  I became a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator last November, and then the session from hell started (I'm not exaggerating--I've talked to several other professors, an they all agree--Spring 2011 was not a pleasant session...) So this summer, I'm going to try really hard to build my Stampin' Up! business, starting with a Stamp Camp on June 18th at my place.  Hopefully, that will get me a few bookings, and I can get this show on the road.

So, that's my summer plan... I'll keep you posted!