I remember when I first started attending The Art Institute of Austin. All I knew was that I wasn't going to continue my nursing career path. I had been out of school much longer than I had anticipated and was ready to make some changes and pursue my career in Interior Design. I didn't do any research on the types of classes I would be taking but I knew that they offered Interior Design program and I was enrolling ASAP.
The day had finally came. I completed everything I needed to get started down my new career path as an Interior Designer. So here I am somewhat prepared and sitting in drafting class clueless. Like many others who think Interior Design is just decorating I was surprised that I had to learn how to do architectural drafting. I'm thinking to myself what the heck did I sign myself up for? The entire time I couldn't even keep up because my brain was all over the place! I was nervous and afraid and not sure if I made the right decision. I did not want to do this part of Interior Design. This is not what I signed up for but literally I signed up for it.
We had an assignment in class and my professor asked us to get out our color pencils and I pull out my pack of Crayola color pencils like I was ready for this part and immediately knew that I had no business in this class. Remind you I was attending an art school, what was I thinking!
Everyone probably laughed hysterically at me when they saw my elementary coloring tools compared to there at the time almost $80.00 Prisma color pencil set! I was so embarrassed and was just unprepared to travel this path. I wasn't making much money to afford all the supplies I needed it was definitely an expensive path to travel towards a college degree but something in me just wouldn't let me quit even though I wasn't sure if I could do it.
It was definitely a challenging time in my life and being around so many talented artist in some of my actual drawing classes made me feel less than and I had horrible public speaking fears and it seemed like every class I had to show something and talk about something. Every time I had to show my artwork I was so embarrassed. I didn't have any raw artistic talent but here I am in perspective drawing making art. We used to have to put our art on the floor and get it critiqued by our peers every class! It was torture until one day someone liked my art! I was so excited. There one like sparked an entire conversation in class and it changed my perspective of me and what I could do.
It took me 5 years to complete my program but I did it and I felt accomplished because I steadied the course and I didn't let my fear keep me from reaching for my goals. I embraced every challenge and made the best of each class. I learned that even though I may not always be prepared I can always get prepared and make the corrections to put my best foot forward.
With God all things are possible and I had to keep my faith in him and myself and push through. This approach has helped me make it where I am today. So whenever I feel less than or like I can't keep pushing forward I think back to my Crayola's and laugh like, girl you started with Crayola's and now you are House Jefe. You will be fine.
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