Have I ever been lazy today! I should have been up and at it hours ago but here I am just puttering about. One of the reasons for this is a hurt my hip. I took a machine quilting class yesterday with Kathleen Quilts. On Thursday afternoon I took time out of my day to get ready for the class. I decided to take my larger Janome Horizon machine as that is the one I do my domestic machine quilting on. It sits in a nice table. I guess I twisted wrong trying to get it out (it’s heavy) and I am in quite a bit of pain now. Oh well, hopefully it goes away by itself and I won’t need physio.
I enjoyed the class immensely, some of the designs she taught I had done on the longarm but had never attempted them on the domestic machine so it was interesting. The class has made me more determined than ever to get going with some more modern quilt designs of my own so I can practice and expand my knowledge even more.
I heard from the “opportunity” yesterday that I didn’t get the job. I was so relieved! Crazy huh. I went for the opportunity because as mentioned in my last post nothing ventured nothing gained. Now you would think I would be disappointed and upset that I didn’t get the chance to have steady income and benefits but the truth is that I would rather have freedom and the ability to be myself. This really came home to me on Monday when I had several clients drop off their quilts to me and then that night I went to a Mary Kay meeting. I have been a Mary Kay reorder consultant for 20 years now. I stayed because I love the product and enjoy the events. My director is not pushy, allows me to choose how and when I want to participate and has become a friend over the years.
Anyway, just listening to all of these directors mirror my beliefs about life and career made me make the decision that I really, really didn’t want to go back to the corporate world. When you really start down the path to fully believe in yourself and your abilities and find your voice it is impossible to go back to the person you used to be.
For instance one of the questions I was asked in the interview was “Give me an example of a time when you were given a task you weren’t trained for and how you handled it”. At the time I couldn’t think of any one example. Anyway after the interview my partner and I went for lunch and I told him the question I couldn’t answer.(For the record I did have an answer just not what they were looking for). He just looked at me and shook his head, and said “Janice, you couldn’t answer the question because there isn’t one single example, you live your life like that everyday.”
Wow! He was right, I had simply never thought of it like that. I worked in Information Technology and I managed systems for 15 years. There were lots of things I wasn’t “trained” to do, it was my job to figure out how and then train others. I still do that, I wasn’t “trained” to be a long arm quilter and yet here I am. I wasn’t “trained” to be a business person or on how to write a blog or how to market myself although I do get help from different sources. Yet, again, here I am.
Anyway back to Monday night, I came home and sat down with my partner and told him I had made the decision that even if I was offered the job I would turn it down. I was so relieved when I didn’t get it because then I didn’t have to let anyone down.
I’m glad I applied though, and grateful for the opportunity, it reinforced why I am on this path even if it defiantly not the safest or easiest one.
Love this quote! Even thinking about getting up in the morning and going to an office there was making me depressed. Life is to short not to live a life you love! Now to go put ice on this hip of mine.
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