Born in 1985, and having lived during five different decades, I have life experience in many areas and have gained immense vocational knowledge in several fields. As a kid, I loved to play NASCAR video games because most of them allowed me to design my own race cars. My parents noticed this, knew I had a creative touch, and enrolled me in guitar lessons. I even played saxophone in the high school band.

My first jobs were in retail, which taught me how to speak to people and understand their needs. I then worked in restaurant service, which taught me to anticipate their needs. I entered college and joined a fraternity, which taught me to be a part of an organization. Not knowing what I wanted to major in, I dropped out of college and went back to retail for a spell. This time, with a focus on moving up the ladder, I learned how to please people and how to strive for excellence.

Aside from gaining job experience during my early adulthood, I began to take my hobbies more seriously as I learned more about who I am and what I want to do with my time. I became extremely interested in, and enthusiastic about, working on and tinkering with my own car. As I entered my late twenties, I decided to be a mechanic and put some of this excitement to use. I helped open a new shop in town that was part of a national chain. This was the first time I learned something about how people, who don’t know enough about the service they are being sold, can get taken advantage of if they do not fully understand what it is they are buying.

After realizing the automotive service field wasn’t the perfect career for me, I tried my hand at working in a call center. While this taught me to take ownership of problems I did not personally create, I felt I wasn’t making a meaningful connection or relationship with my customers. I might as well had been working in a factory. So I tried that next. Factory work taught me how to master processes by doing them repetitively.

Around this time, I broke out some of my old NASCAR video games. I designed countless race cars, like I did when I was a kid. I started watching videos online of other people designing race cars. The algorithm started feeding me videos of other things I could design and what programs to use. Before I knew it, I was having dreams, waking up excited to design those other things too. The term for this, as I eventually learned, is Graphic Design.

After some research, I went back to college and worked retail while earning my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design. In 2019, my senior year, I quit my job to take an internship. In 2020, right before I graduated, we were faced with a pandemic that caused a lot of companies and businesses to tighten their budgets and it was extremely difficult to find a job in my field. Openings for graphic designers were specifying 5 years of experience as a prerequisite, and the salary being offered was not indicative of this requirement. But, in 2021, I was finally offered a position locally as a graphic/web designer. I am currently learning more and more about how websites are made, how they work, and what they can do for a client.

As I settle into being a graphic designer, a career that I hope will carry me into retirement (a very long time from now!), I think back on all the jobs, all the hobbies, that have gotten me to where I am now. I’m grateful for everything I have, everything I’ve given, and I’m excited for what’s to come next for me.

-T