Journey Behind The Journey

Friday April 16th, 2010 was a big day for me. It was the culmination of 100+ hours (possibly 200+) and a bunch of dollars that were used to produce one little book with a big purpose. The book is my portfolio, the purpose is to attain a job in graphic design! I shouldn't say all those hours and dollars were only put toward one little book. Along with my portfolio, I produced a resume, business card, envelope, leave behind and website. Here's a little sampling of the work I did:

Portfolio Cover

Leave Behind Cover

Business Card - Front Side

Although everything you see looks fairly simplistic, it was anything but that! I started working on all these things a couple of months ago but the majority of the work was done in the last couple of weeks - mostly the last week. On Monday the 5th, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and not very hopeful that I would be able to get done what was needed.

Things began to change dramatically after Grandma prayed for me and encouraged me to stop, pray and then get a fresh start on my day. All of my work did not magically disappear nor were solutions to my projects instantly popping into my brain and getting translated onto my computer. What changed at that time was my attitude. I was no longer overcome with worry about finishing my work and instead was able to think optimistically about it.

In this past week I've been averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night and about 15 hours of school work a day. I got pretty tired and a little cranky at times but for the most part I was energized, alert, able to focus on one thing at time and have a positive attitude.

On Thursday afternoon I was feeling pretty exhausted and starting to wonder if I would get everything done. While I had hoped to have my portfolio printed and assembled by the last weekend, it didn't happen until Thursday afternoon. Of course, mistakes immediately popped off of the printed page. However, cost and time prevented me from making corrections and reprinting. I have never created a book before and that was my next task. Things eventually got wrapped up around 11:00pm. I wasn't overly excited about my portfolio, business cards and resume but consoled myself with the realization that worse things can happen than my work not looking as good as I'd like, my website not being up and running when I'd like and my portfolio presentation not going as well as I'd hope for.

I managed to get about 6 hours of sleep on Thursday night, woke up to a breakfast made by Courtney on Friday morning and arrived at school in plenty of time. I had everything I needed but was a little disappointed with it. Nonetheless, when the presentations began at 9:00, I was able to talk fairly confidently about my work. I wasn't nervous or tired as I had expected and despite the mistakes I saw in my work, I think it was received pretty well by the reviewers.

I know there were many people praying for me during this process because I most certainly noticed! If you were one of those people, thank you so very much for taking the time to do so!

It was so nice to be able to relax after the presentation was done! Mom and I got to go out for supper at a new (for us) restaurant - The Bosphorus Cafe, enjoy coffee at Calvin Fletcher Coffee Co. and watch Alex & Emma. Overall, it was a fantastic day!