and not paying attention, it seems that my freelancing thing morphed into a proper little business. Somewhere between having the luxury of grocery shopping at 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon and finding myself working 'til 7pm at my own little office in Rosebank, I went from a lady of leisure with the occasional work commitment, to a workaholic with the occasional social engagement.
Need evidence? As I type this, there is a pink Post It paper-clipped onto a file at eye level reminding me to fetch two friends tonight at 19h00 so that we can go out for a 'drinks and sushi' that's been in the diary for weeks. I had to write it down... three months ago I may have forgotten to collect the dry cleaning or book a wax, but I would never have forgotten an excuse for having sushi and vino mid-week. My how things have changed...
Having lived in oblivion for the past few months, it's only this week that the reality has dawned on me – I have a full time job, a proper Monday to Friday, 'if I'm not a work, I'm not making money' job. And it just crept up on me, while I was living from day to day, from deadline to deadline, from pink Post It to pink Post It... one minute I'm testing out the waters, fiddling with freelance copy jobs, and the next I'm seriously considering hiring a copywriter to handle the overflow – Yes, The not so starving artist may grow from just little old me, to little old me and someone else.
As hubby says, I have found something creative to do that doesn't list starving as one of the main criteria. Fancy that – something creative that people actually need on a continual basis and can't always do themselves. Who knew that my tendency to write in journals and blab on blogs and be the 'go to' girl for 'How do you spell Swisser..., um Switza.., um Swizzirlind?' -type queries, would actually turn into my job? I never thought that my knack for crosswords or my phobia of typo's would enable me to fund my shoe fetish.
I get to come up with creative concepts and play with words all day. It's kind of like living in my own brightly coloured Scrabble set but instead of triple word scores there are first, second and final drafts (and sometimes even final, final, final drafts, but that's a whole other blog post). There are challenging briefs and ever-changing pay days. Sure, I haven't quite grasped the business side of the plan – that'll take time – artists have never been that good at charging... but luckily I am surrounded by several savvy business women who give me stern talking to about '50% deposits upfront' and 'handling fees' at least once a day. And I have a hubby whose automated response to my excited 'They LOVED my pitch!' phone calls, is 'Have you invoiced?'
Where I am isn't the result of my planning or my carefully thought out strategy... Between 2005 and now I have been an artist, a gallery assistant, a shop girl, an account exec, a full time painter, a part-time housewife, an art consultant and a diamond dealer – my plan was kind of a no plan plan. That being said, by dabbling in all sorts of things I have picked up a unique (some would say contradictory) set of skills, and a supernatural knowledge of the inner workings of Sandton City.
Nothing has been an accident, I firmly believe that for the past five years God's been moving me around a chess board, putting all the pieces in place and giving me the confidence to make the right moves. If he's managed to turn this grungy art student/waitress into a copywriter, this commitment-phobic single to mingle chick into a happily married 'Mrs Winderley', and this (anti-sweat) couch potatoe into a half-marathon runner, then I can't wait to see what He does with the next 5 years.
So, dear readers, here's my little coffee bean of wisdom –
Stroll through the doors that keep opening and walk away from the routes that seem littered with doors that constantly slam in your face. Spend time and energy on the 'Welcome mats' and less time nursing the broken noses from particularly emphatic swinging doors. It's cheesy and an über cliché, but sometime life really does happen while you're making other plans.
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