cheerleaders

since i am on this "be positive" kick, i wanted to share two moments in my life:

#1
Setting: intro to graphic design class, located in the old mass comm building. walls are old and chipping and resemble some light aqua color, the lights, half burned out, are flicking once in a while. i've been working on the stupid newsletter what seems foooooooooooooorever, when jan, the professor, comes over, stands behind me, looks over my shoulder and with a sincere surprise in her voice says "why are you not a visual comm major? you are good!".

i pulled that newsletter out a couple days ago while packing to move. the truth is - it's really not that good. but at that point, jan saw something in me that no one had noticed before and it gave me the wings to take off. it gave me the permission to dream that maybe i can try to do this.

it has turned into something more then just a "i like to do this". i am not that great at it but i love to design! it's the only thing that never seems like work. i love colors, i love the challenge of laying things out so they don't look cluttered but are in a hierarchial order, i love to think of the big idea and then add the details that make a piece alive. i think of a designer as a visual interpreter - you get a whole bunch of information, most of the time words, that you need to convey in a visually attractive manner, you need to set the mood, to set the stage in more then just text. I LOVE DOING IT!!!!!

#2
Setting: Volante. I have just gotten a big, heavy camera that has more buttons than i know what to do with. in fact, for the most part, i still don't know what to do with them. keep in mind, this is back in the day when volanters didn't use the expensive, fancy digital cameras. so, with a heavy camera around my neck, i am sent out to CSC to take pictures of the people who are being taped to the wall. really, i had no idea what i was doing. i just thought it was cool. the next thing i knew was that picture on the front page of volante. MY NAME, UNDER A PICTURE, ON THE FRONT PAGE OF A NEWSPAPER!!!!! the dork that i am, i picked up about 15 copies of that paper, highlighted my name and sent to everyone i knew at home - look, ma & pa, your child is achieving greatness! once again, it's not that i am that good at it, but at that moment, someone noticed something (actually, just really needed the pictures for the front page) and that gave me the wings. otherwise, i don't know if i would have gotten involved with photography as much as i did.

there is so much power in encouragement and praise! if not for those cheerleaders who didn't hold back at those times, i don't know if i would have had the courage to discover what i really love to do. thank you for taking the time to say the good things, they mean so much. sometimes, those kind words can move big things. don't hold them back.