I've made a major change in my life in the last month.
I left my job as Program Coordinator at Camp Wartburg, where I've been for the last four years. It feels like I'm forever away from that first step onto Camp's grounds for an interview in early September. So much has happened, and I've done so much. But I've got a lot ahead of me too. And I just chose to seek what's next outside of Camp.
I've been living off of Camp site for about a week and half. I moved into a house in Maryland Heights, MO with three guys I'm connected with by various channels. West County is a fun place to be! I'm about forty minutes closer to my girlfriend Rachelle, in Ellisville, which makes things quite a bit easier for us. We're just a few minutes from all the cool stuff on Olive and Dorsett, plus Creve Couer Park is just a bike ride away, and Grandma's house is right across Feefee! The house (which is on a cul-de-sac!) has four bedrooms on the second floor, with upstairs laundry, large living areas on ground level with two car garage, and a walk-in basement half of which is finished, the other half is storage. There's a pretty good sized backyard, with a nice deck, and it all backs up to woods and a creek. The housemates are great to live with. Very agreeable on all fronts. Brilliant guys with good hearts and a lot of advice for a camp kid trying to be a grown-up.
The most imposing part of my life right now is the Job Search. It's been what's kept me from updating too many people, kind of for fear of not having any good news. But some folks helped me to decide that that's silly. So here I am.
When people have been asking me, "What exactly are you looking for?" I've been answering, "Hello? A job..." In my head, at least. The truth is after four years in an industry that no one really understands, and in a position that they understand EVEN LESS, I feel like I've got even less career direction than I did four years ago, holding a shiny, fresh Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Studio Art. But here instead of looking at this situation as one where I have no qualifications to do any specific thing, I look at myself as having ample qualifications to do anything. I truly believe that with a little bit of an orientation, I could perform in almost any environment, but I'm getting the feeling I'll need to work my way back up.
All this is not to say I don't have an ultimate goal in mind. It is, as it always was, woodworking. Furniture-making to be precise, Art Furniture making to be exact. However, this doesn't add a lot to the job search since the industry is on rough times. I've been in contact with several shops in the area, all are reluctant to hire(which puts it gently) anyone, especially one with no "practical experience." Most of those are actually due for a follow-up call by now, so we'll see. I'm determined to go it alone, however, but more on that later.
Without a prospect for a woodworking gig, my eyes turn to other fulltime employment. It'd be great to get into a management position or a position which would be easily promotable to a management position. I'm working on something with our friendly neighborhood drugstore and should hear by Monday. To be honest the prospects for fulltime jobs has been dismal at best. So I'm also seeking out stackable part-time jobs. The idea being if I can stack a 20-30hr weekend job with a 20-30hr weekday job, or a morning job with an evening job, then by sheer strength of character, I can make ends meet until I find something better. I'm looking into such areas as Outdoors or Home Improvement Stores to direct a little of my two most obvious passions, or just random retail stores. Eventually I'll change gears to look for server jobs at some fancy restaurants. No, not Applebee's fancy...
Done with job search, back to woodworking.
I'm looking forward to having time to devote to wood. It's been so long since I've held something made by my mind and my hands together and felt like it was something that I truly poured myself into.
There are a lot of good things happening on this front. I have a large amount of tools that were rescued from my great uncle's estate this last year, thanks to my dad who's got a lot of faith in my potential. Many are old and in need of repair but they'll one day make fine things I know it. All these tools are taking up a little corner of the garage right now. This space is common use for me and the housemates, and there is a lot of space. It doesn't look like it right now because a lot of it is taken up by my junk. So I need to downsize and organize, and with a little bit of creative storage solutions I think there will be plenty of space there to pull off a few projects. One of the first things I need to build is a Workbench, for my sweet awesome vise, and on which to run my plunge router, which will likely perform most of my joinery as well as some roughing techniques until I get a planer. The other thing is probably an outfeed table for my little old table saw. These are simple items, but until I have money for the materials for these, I'll continue to clean up the space and to design.
I'm working in two areas as far as designs are concerned. I'm of course trying to think of the biggest best stuff possible to continue my thought processes where I left off, taking into account everywhere my mind has been in the last four years, but I'm also working on figuring out the best way to potentially utilize ETSY, the ebay of the handmade. I've begun a set of designs which focus on being simple, creative, and shippable. I wan to put my mark on some items that can be one of a kind, but one of many, that can be great for someone's home and life, but also make me some money for shop expenses. Right now I'm refining the designs for a plywood camping chair requested by a friend. If you have any ideas, please comment here.
All this craziness hasn't kept me from having fun. Last weekend Rachelle and I went and played Demolition Ball(lacrosse on bumper cars) and lazer tag with the teachers from STJ, and like I said I've been exploring Maryland Heights by bicycle. I haven't figured out when to schedule the next epic climbing adventure, but I keep finding new belay partners. In addition to climbing I'm setting my sites on new backpacking adventures this fall and sometime I'd really like to canoe all 109 miles of Missouri scenic riverway along the Current River camping along the way. We shall see.
That's my life as it is now. Peace.
