Have you ever felt unsatisfied in your life? You feel like you are capable of more and where you are isn’t where you are meant to be long term. That’s me right now. I want a new job. I want a car. I want more earning potential. I want more living overseas. I want more adventures. I want to do more than just survive. I want to live.
I have a new plan to beat survival and to live more adventures.
How am I surviving? Not very well to be honest. I mean, I have a roof over my head and food on my plate. I have a computer from 2009 that I am using to build this site and edit my 35mm film photos. So I am doing better than some. But I know I can do better and be better than I am right now.
Two years ago I was living in Vietnam making about $1200/mo living a comfortable life with my $350/mo rent. Life was good. I had a bike, a motorbike, a boyfriend, friends, and was part of a great community. I had enough money to do what I needed and had some left over to go on adventures. Everyday was an adventure in Hanoi!
I lived comfortably but I didn’t live in surplus in Hanoi. I spent what I made. I wasn’t saving anything.
Then, without warning, my grandma entered her final stage in life. She asked me to come home to be with her. I said yes without hesitation.
I bought a round trip ticket for two weeks but didn’t return to Hanoi for 11 months. I stayed with my grandma through her final moments in her last stage of life.
In those 11 months I shifted my perspective about living overseas, at this moment. I started to change my mind when I started to look for jobs. I realized I didn’t like anything I was applying for, but it’s what I thought I was qualified to do. I felt under qualified for the jobs I wanted. I felt like an unskilled laborer with no direction at 34 years old. I knew I needed to stay in the country to really figure out a career path.
I found a part time job while my grandma was alive that was near her home. I kept moving up in the organization from entry level seasonal, to permanent part time, to full time after she passed. It seemed like it was the right place for me. Then, abruptly, I was fired. Well, that was a blow to my ego. It was time to self analyze. I think I had convinced myself that, that company was what I wanted. I was settling for something because it was easy. In reality it couldn’t have been farther from what I ultimately desire: adventure.
Adventure doesn’t pay the bills. It doesn’t bring home the bacon. Adventure does the the opposite. It gives you new ways to spend your money. I needed to find a path to adventure; a path to living.
It was when I was on my way home from a job interview, that I wasn’t excited about, that I saw the sign. The interview was for some administrative assistant role. The money was just ok and it was office hours. It was for an insurance company so I could work my way up. The recruiter even had disbelief that I wanted the job. Sometimes we aren’t even aware what we are projecting.
I was sitting on the bus, on my way home from that interview, when a billboard flashed by, “Free Career Training.” I wasn’t able to catch anymore information. When I got off the bus, home, and my motion sickness disappeared, I googled, “Free career training” One of the first sites to pop up was San Diego County Continuing Education.
I spent some time on their website and even checked out the campus where I met with an advisor. It’s just what I need, free certificate courses to be a web designer.
I enrolled and started the journey to change my life. I am on the path to becoming a web designer.
So, why am I here you ask? This website is where I want to practice what I am learning. I want to practice the concepts I am learning and start to build a brand for myself.
What kind of brand do I want to be? That’s truly another great question. The truthful answer is, I don’t know. I don’t know where this blog can lead and how it will breed. The possibilities the web design certificate can open up are limitless. I feel right now, at the very beginning, anything is possible. And the possibilities excite me!
As I practice my skills and begin to hone my craft, I plan to write investigate blogs where I dig into topics we may not have a lot of information on. These could possibly be technology based topics, but maybe something else too. I also want to showcase my 35mm film photography and talk about my experiences while taking the pictures. Lastly, I am going to do journal style writing, as well. In the future, these could turn into three different sites, or one area might fall off completely.
The investigative pieces are going to take time. A lot of research goes along with writing them. The one I am currently working on, is a super loaded topic and should probably be broken up into several posts. It’s about computational propaganda; what it is, why we should be aware of it and how we can be mindful to not buy into it.
The journaling style of writing I wonder how honest I can be. How personal should I get? What do I want to talk about? Do I talk about my vision board and my goals? Do I talk about my eye candy? Or my struggles? I like the idea if being so honest and open, but that leaves me vulnerable to you, complete strangers. I don’t know how personal I will get. Only time will tell.
If you think you can hang, follow along. Hit the link below to follow me on my journey to a better tomorrow.
The Modern Essence 