I was in college, undergrad, from September 1997 to May 2001.
The school that I had selected offered an eduction major, but that wasn't why I went there, or the major that I declared.
The major offering that had most intrigued me was Interior Design.
I did not select this major either, though I made sure to take as many courses as I could... it was a wonderful time to be in school for interior design. My freshman year, everyone drew their presentations, but by the time I was taking seminars in residential and commercial design, everything was in AutoCADD- in fact, the version was upgraded senior year and we got a brand new computer lab for graphic design and interior design students to share.
I graduated with a minor in Interior Design, another minor in Computer Science, and a major in Math... But I had found what might very well be my true love in a senior year independent study- weaving.
Normally, I'm a major klutz. I walk into furniture and get myself black and blue regularly, but on a loom, I'm using both hands and both feet and moving quickly; creating something beautiful and functional.
To make it even better, there are seemingly limitless combinations of threads, treadles, and looks created- and there are many ties to math, making me that much more comfortable creating my own designs... But, in May of 2001, being any type of artist was only a pipe dream and a hobby.
I went right into grad school to get a teaching certification to go with my math major, and by fall 2003, had a teaching job at my old high school.
I have to admit that while I was enthusiastic and loved reaching students, it was also much more difficult and exhausting than I had imagined, having had wonderful student-teaching experiences where my enthusiasm and knowledge had seemed enough to keep classrooms full of youngsters engaged and involved.
School discipline policies had changed over the past several years, and even the supposed "go to" method of classroom management touted by several of my college professors left me frustrated in a room full of chatting teens... When, in late 2005, I began to have health problems that made managing my classroom essentially impossible, I was put on medical leave.
I was initially devastated. I didn't want to let the kids or my co-workers down. I'd been in school for seven years becoming a teacher, and I couldn't even finish my third year in the classroom- I felt like a failure.
After a month or so, I was given clearance for work in classrooms under less-stressful situations and sent back to the school I had student taught in as a tutor/para-professional. I got to work with peers I admired and cared for, small groups of students, and my enthusiasm started coming back.
There was a problem, of course- at the end of my contract year, I would be dropped from teacher salary to tutor salary, and no longer have the comprehensive healthcare that had gotten me back to work fairly quickly.
I elected to enroll in a correspondence program on interior decorating, taking online quizzes throughout the spring and my final exam in the summer of 2006.
While it wasn't as exciting or impressive as passing the NCIDQ exam, it also meant that I wouldn't be expected to be responsible for structural work, making things potentially less stressful if I could find any clients.
I wanted to develop my own material using my looms- curtains and upholstery, mainly.
After detailed discussions with my family, JoD's Studio, LLC was born (with a little help from Legal Zoom.) Of course, as the economy was heading into a downwards spiral, I wasn't able to find clients.
Luckily, someone else was able to find me- a district math coordinator who thought that I might be a good fit for a math literacy lab.
Since math illiteracy (innumeracy) was the topic of my Masters' thesis, I was thrilled and signed on by the second week of the school year.
Two days later, my paternal grandmother died.
She was in her nineties, and ready, but it was still a huge punch to the gut. She had been an inspiration to me, and as the family worked on her estate and taking care of my maternal grandmother- and I discovered that it's difficult to think about anything else when you have about four hundred students- the business was put on the back-burner.
That summer (2007), my boyfriend and I got a condo together. I got a larger loom and hoped to turn the basement into a fabric-producing mecca... but a fire a few units down in May of 2008, there was a kitchen fire. We were all displaced until Christmas of that year.
I was beginning to despair. I was paying legal fees for a non-existent company! When would I finally be able to pursue my dream?
Now an old-hat at moving from one place to another, in the late winter/early spring of 2009, we moved back to my hometown, to the house my maternal grandmother, having died the previous Easter, had left my Mom.
There was a bathroom to add, kitchen to update, walls to paint... again, the LLC was on hold, but at least now there was talk of setting up a studio in a potential rental space of my parents'.
Or course, our trail of insanity was not yet over! The market had crashed, with major ramifications.
My boyfriend and I were putting off an engagement while he found himself looking for a new job.
My parents needed to initiate an eviction process with another of their tenants, while we were unable to sell the condo since we owed more in loans than it was worth. We finally managed to rent the unit at a loss... but with my folks needing rent for the space and us not having the cash, there went the idea of a studio.
We began a lifestyle that involved living in a home full of boxes that were never quite unpacked... a process that is finally winding down now.
It's been a busy year.
In November of 2009, we finally became engaged, deciding to take advantage of the fact that we had met while both teaching math, and selected 8/9/10 as the date, with ceremony at 11 and reception at noon. We were able to afford a Monday morning wedding, and have now been married two months.
Around the same time as my engagement, things at work began to change. There was already a new co-worker to team-teach with as of the start of the 09/10 school year, but now I had a new supervisor as they changed the administration and some of the inner-building politics, and the day-to day operations of lab were being re-vamped. I'm not sure how much this really did impact my immune system, but I was sick more often during this school year (with viruses) than I had been since I was a middle-school student.
Around April break, it was time to make a major decision. Most of my supervisors had recommended me for tenure at the start of my fifth year, but it looked like my contract wouldn't be renewed. Should I follow union advice and fight a case that my rep felt I would win?
On the other hand, this had been the most stressful of my four years in the lab, and I was exhausted.
I elected not to fight the contract drop.
This was it- my chance to finally follow my creative dreams!
Much of the summer was full of wedding preparations, but, now, here, in the fall of 2010, four years after I initiated an LLC, I'm working on making money for my new family- so, please, follow me as I learn how to turn my dreams into a reality!
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