People have always told me I should sell my artwork. I even took a few years off working a typical job to “do art.” I had no actual plan. I just used the excuse that working the job I was in was a net zero money gain to be a stay-at-home person. Fortunately, I had a very supportive Mister. However, I do think some animosity grew between us.
I didn’t use my time wisely. I’ve always been quite lazy. I spent most of my time puttering on the internet, scrolling social media, and playing video games. I didn’t even maintain the house as I should have. Meanwhile, The Mister was still working a physically demanding job that often resulted in overtime.
It’s worth mentioning a period of depression that I was going through around this time as well. I was still in my 20s and did not have the proper tools to deal with such things, despite having gone through depression in middle school and going to therapy for a short while.
In the end, I was not mature enough nor knowledgeable enough to understand what it would take to sell my artwork as a full-time job.
Fast-forward twenty years: I returned to work in the soul-sucking service industry. I was very fortunate to have a co-worker recommend me to the company they were working for, and I was hired into a small office. I happily remained with this company until fall 2024, when some health issues pressed us to move closer to family. My supervisor allowed me to work remotely while I trained my replacements.
Then, at the beginning of December 2024, my supervisor told me that the last day of the year would be my last day working with my employer.
Since we moved, I had been half-heartedly looking for remote work-from-home jobs, knowing the day would come when I couldn’t work with my employer anymore. I saw enough to know there were jobs I was qualified for, and I saved some here and there for when I’d have to start applying. Once given a date for my last day, I started checking the job boards and applying to ones that made sense.
Another thing I began doing was trying to figure out what I wanted for my life. Big questions, I know. What did I want my physical space to look like? What did I want my days to look like? What did I want to do for work? I did what I did very well; I began making lists to organize my thoughts, my priorities, and things that required more information.
コメント