Design

“You get around, don’t you?”

A 71-year-old man I had never met asked me this the other day. He was referring to my various local job experiences. I’ve always been a go-getter and love trying new things – often four or five new things at once, job wise.  And the new things I try? Well, they always tend to be very public or social because that’s just the kind of person I am. The various gigs I took on started in high school. I worked all through college. My schedule, and interests, were constantly changing, plus I wanted to keep learning new skills to be a well-rounded entrepreneur.

I tend to take on lots of little projects – media consulting, freelancing, teaching, tutoring. My newest gig? Graphic designer. I don’t know how I talk people into letting me do a jobs that I have little experience in, but somehow it always works out. Today, I laid out my first newspaper spread since I was a section editor for a semester in college. I trained myself in new software. No one stood over my shoulder and showed me the ropes. I just dived in. Of course, I  did have people around to go bug if I needed to, but for the most part I was on my own. There were times I was hunched over my chair whispering obscenities to myself, but at the end of the day it all worked out. I was excited to see how quickly I could adapt to new circumstances and feeling like I put forth my best effort.

I had worked with graphic designers before and now it’s funny experiencing the role reversal. Graphic designers must get lonely – it’s not a very social job. For the most part you are staring eyes wide, mouth dropping into a bright screen. The only noises that matter are the clicks of the mouse and the occasional typing on the keyboard.

I am a multimedia machine.