Let the holiday-related decorating begin! I spent a good amount of time drawing those Christmas tree ornaments that hung from my place of work. =) My roommate and I also want to get a Christmas tree to squeeze into our new apartment, which will be fun, since I've never had a tree of my own.Anyway, life has been really busy, but fun. I managed to go to the ChristKindlMarket downtown for the first time, and I bought me a nice knitted hat and had a delicious crepe and hot cocoa. Perfect for the wintertime! I also returned to the Lincoln Park zoo and drew some more animals to get my artistic skills rolling again. My writing is going smoothly as well, though I didn't completely finish NanoWrimo from last month - part of the reason being my crazy work schedule - but I did manage to make 30,000 words. It's the most that I've ever done!
Today I went to a special info session for the Nickelodeon Writing Program at Columbia College, which is the same fellowship program I applied to last year. I'm almost tempted to go for this again, because it sounds exactly like the kind of thing I would enjoy doing as a job: writing for television. I'd spend a year in Burbank, CA, working with professional writers and producers at Nickelodeon Studios and pitching ideas for shows. I can write a spec script and turn it in by February and cross my fingers that I get a phone call in October of next year. The problem is... I'm broke. I'm working 3 part time jobs without health insurance and paying rent in Chicago basically out of my own pocket.
It's also frustrating to think that I don't have a concrete plan for next year... how everything I apply for and things I tell myself to do are based off of a gamble.
I'm not 23 anymore. I cannot afford to think like this, nor can I afford to just sit around and brainstorm life plans for myself without actually doing anything about them.
Here are some things that gave gathered dust in my room while in Chicago these past four months:
- Arts & Crafts supplies. I have a huge newsprint pad and a painting easel that haven't been used since I moved in, and drawing utensils that have been used a handful of times.
- Graphic Design books & a Bamboo Tablet. My sister gave me that tablet for my birthday, and it sucks that my computer cannot really handle it. I miss digital art.
- Japanese textbooks and CDs. I used to think that if I had the open time to learn, I would learn. It started out like that in September, but then it became the excuse of not having a decent iPod to listen to the audio lessons.
- Cookbooks. I wanted to cook a lot more from the moment I moved here, but alas, buying food gets expensive, and cooking gets very time-consuming. And GroupOn deals don't really help, either.
- my DePaul University Grad School acceptance letter. It's funny, because I wasn't even excited when I got accepted. I haven't even said 'yes' to starting in the Winter Quarter, or ever, for that matter. The quick reason is finances - I'm already in a student loan hole - but another reason is that I'm not... excited... about doing the counseling program. It was one thing to talk about working with kids, talking to people, being Emma Pillsbury in Glee... but when I really thought about it, it was more about making people feel better about my situation, less about me. I visited the counseling department after I got accepted, and it just didn't feel right, like I walked in there by accident.
On the bright side of things, I have been exploring the city and running. I've managed to land some great work on my own that aren't brain-dead jobs, and that, if anything, are helping me grow and become confident as a person. I've decided that before I curl myself up in the "school" safety blanket again, I need to keep trying this real world experience... be the struggling artist, take the occasional class, work hard, pay the bills, network... and be happy.
And not feel bad about not having time for everything on her list.
It's the type of thing that a girl in her late 20s should be doing, anyway.
=)
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