In preparation for watching the finale tonight, I’ve been watching the Project Runway extras. Extended judging. Designer interviews. One thing really stood out to me as I listened to each one discuss where he or she came from: Where you start doesn’t have to be where you’ll end up, but what you do on the way can guide, shape, and have a profound effect on your ultimate destination.
Some of this season’s contestants have been designing from the get-go. They knew early on what they wanted to do, and they’ve followed their heart. Others had to “arrive”. One of them actually started out as a med student. He found the human body fascinating, but not enough to repair it. Going through med school, though, gave him a better understanding of the human body, which has, in turn, made him a good designer.
I think that’s one benefit creatives have — they can take what they’ve seen and done, and apply it to make their work stronger and more personal. Every life experience becomes one more layer in their work. When you aren’t doing creative work, it’s easy to take a narrow-minded approach to your work. Instead of embracing what you’ve done and been, you get yourself locked into the role you’re currently in.
This is my current struggle. I went from creating workshops, educational programs, and mini-games to doing nothing but teaching someone else’s curriculum and doing admin work. When I started realizing I wasn’t happy with where I was, I started looking to jobs I probably never would have considered and naturally couldn’t figure out how to make myself fit into them. I even lost my love of volunteering because I kept trying to serve companies and causes I just wasn’t interested in.
A few months ago, I started actually looking at my own path, at where I’ve been, and I noticed something. My path has been filled with the kind of organizing, creative, and educational work that I enjoy. I’ve had it with me all along. Years of assisting with curating and managing collections, both at work and privately. Years of writing, crafting, designing. Years of not only teaching, but coaching, mentoring, and directing. It’s all right there, waiting to be added up to something I’m really going to shine at and enjoy.
And then I started running into this message everywhere.
I actually share it with my students now when they worry that what they decide to do in their electives at school or in their college work will tie them down forever. I tell them to study what interests them right now and let it become part of who they are, because they honestly never know how an interest from their youth will help shape and direct their future.
