Connecting the links

The story of our lives it seems, for many I suppose, to be a continual “work in progress”. When I was younger I had big dreams for when I finished college. First, I planned to be an architect, but then later as my major changed it was to be a jewelry artist making unique and limited edition works. Then when I graduated, I was told to “get a real job”. As if working four jobs and attending college full-time wasn’t already a “real job” just to make ends meet and pay for everything.

I was naïve and didn’t ask questions. I wasn’t confident enough to ask questions and often felt I wasn’t allowed. I just went out and got a job in an office as I felt I was expected to do. Never fully satisfied with what I was doing for long and with work environment changes, I did too. Slowly, through experience and a constant desire to do something more, I gained confidence and would move on to something else.

I’ve lost count of how many different jobs I had, but I’ve done a bit of everything - working in bars and restaurants, many office environments working my way from being an assistant to management, retail (also in the jewelry industry), advertising, tourism, and a fun and adventurous one, yachting.

Every step and different direction are like the links in our unique chain of life. The last big direction I took was to begin teaching in Italy. This, finally, is a job that I haven’t become bored with and I feel more satisfied than ever in my career. However, I do find myself wanting to teach more than the subject I’m hired to do (English language).

So here I am, with all the links of my life connecting together - I’m building a classroom in my home to teach private small groups jewelry making techniques and blending the education with my local knowledge, tourism experience, and a big desire for adventure and creativity.

view from the new studio

With a lot of hard work ahead and some luck to not have any setbacks with the renovations, I hope to teach my first one-day workshop by this summer. Absolutely, I will be ready by September since this is the first scheduled event hosting 2 one-week events with my first guest instructor, Jim Dailing, who has shared a similar dream to teach in Italy. It’s a collaboration that was meant to be. In my next post I’ll share the story of how this happened.