Tuesday, January 18, 2011

And it's 2011

So, to be clear I AM still here. I've had lots of post ideas so far this year, but little time to produce them like I would want to. But I was reminded of Ira Glass and his thoughts on Persistence and Creativity last week in a post from Nicole Balch's Making it Lovely blog and I just had to make sure to share it with you. Thank you, Nicole. Thanks for your blog. I have a big blog-crush on you. If you haven't visited her site, try it out immediately. This girl is impressive. And one heck of a coder. Back to Persistence. I heard Ira Glass give this talk a few years ago when we were living in Austin and it made such an impact on me. Please watch: It was (IS) so great to hear someone like Ira Glass admit that it's okay to be bad at something in the beginning. And years into it. I still make reference to this talk he gave- in fact, I was telling my good friend Brandy about it last fall. It's great to hear those words again and be reminded, with the help of YouTube, that you don't have to have it all figured out in the beginning. Heck, you don't need to be good at whatever it is that you are doing. The important thing is to do what you love and keep doing it. Over and over again. And then some more. It meant a lot to me to be reminded of that last week. The week that I told my former architecture firm that I won't be coming back after maternity leave. I made the decision over our Christmas vacation that my family is what I want to spend my time on for the next couple of years. It was not an easy decision. I had a great job, supportive bosses, and a flexible schedule. It would be nice to have the extra income as we save for a house. But my heart wasn't in it and I didn't feel like I would be doing either job well (architecture or mom) if I split them up right now. I know others that do it really well, but I don't think it's for me right now. So back to persistence. I'm a new parent. I definitely don't always feel good about the job I'm doing. But I'm going to keep it at. It's my full-time job now. And I'm still working on the architecture part. Hopefully it's still a viable career for me in a few years. In the meantime, I'll be here. Parenting and trying to blog and stay current with architecture and design. I might even be able to do a project or two eventually. Just wanted you to know that I'm not giving up. Cue the corny Persistence poster. Hope that wasn't too much over-sharing. But that's what blogs are for, right?

4 comments:

  1. Say what?!?! I'm so excited for you! Congrats on a great decision. So much to celebrate at CC!

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  2. Yay!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy for you.
    Your thoughts on not succeeding at something right away (or ever) are really right on. I have been hearing that message in various forms over the last month and it's a good one to never forget. We can so easily make ourselves miserable if we become blinded by one, immovable goal and forget to experience happiness along the way, because the latter is the best thing there is.
    P.S. You saw Ira Glass give this talk? So jealous.

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  3. Thanks, ladies! This is a definite turning point. It's nice to finally have a determined focus. So much to do now!
    And yes, I saw Ira Glass give this in Austin a few years ago I think when they first started doing video for This American Life. Austin is the coolest.

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  4. Rachel,
    Excellent post, you spoke so well of the difficulties of the modern Mom...maybe that is another area you can blog about. I loved the persistence photo, too.

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