New Year, New Job, New...Shoes?

I started a new job a few months ago, leaving my safe job in tech support with a great company to finally try to do some designing 9-5. This was hopefully the payoff of three years spent searching in vain for a full time design gig in the sparsely populated rural Northeast.

I gotta say, it was a rough start. Left a good-paying job for an artist's wages, a small company for a large one, and moved away from my boyfriend to a dingy town in the snow belt. It was a stressful move to begin with, and the job didn't exactly make it feel worth it in those first few months either. I started right in the middle of the busy season at my new company, and started playing catch-up immediately. The real interesting work didn't start until about 2 months in, and I was worried it never would.

However, things have really started to improve now that the holidays are over. I have gotten to know my new coworkers and my new boss, and it's a friendly group. The snow storms have been unrelenting, but so far I've been able to shovel myself out without incident (fingers crossed). And I'm finally experiencing a job where I can actually do creative work full-time. Well, it's not always that creative, but even when it's mundane I still have the opportunity to learn new design techniques I've never had to know before. My Adobe Illustrator skills alone have soared from their meager beginnings, simply out of necessity and deadlines.

Sure, things are still rough from time to time, and I miss my family and former coworkers. I miss having a nice paycheck and benefits (hopefully that situation will improve). I miss coming home and eating dinner with my boyfriend. Things can't stay like this forever. But I'm learning so much and I think I'll come out better for it.

If only the snow would just leave me alone already.