Why you should always follow your dreams.
Life has certainly never guaranteed favorable outcomes.However, in my experience hard work and focusing on reaching goals has more often than not ended in positive results. Even if the outcome is a valuable life lesson.
I’ll tell you my experience with working towards entry into my dream job,(which actually indirectly lead to finding love and a peace I’ve never experienced but that’s for another post).
My life and career has changed quite a bit the past few years. I finished one educational goal and career goal and moved forward into another educational goal while learning more practical knowledge through work experience in my new career path.
As you (may)know I am a fashion designer and run my own business , I went back to school to learn tailoring and certify as a tailor for two main reasons. First to expand my already proficient knowledge of sewing to include menswear and menswear techniques, being able to incorporate those style into my womenswear line.
Secondly to train to be a tailor so I could shift my career into IATSE 705 Feature film union tailoring and create a space where I would have more economic security as well as stable health and pension benefits.
It took five years.Three training, two working doing custom key builds for indie films, working on set doing builds on location, and taking in as much freelance as I had time for before working on my days to join the Costumers Union as a custom made costumer. It took me six months to get all my days to join union working on features.
It then took me a year of practical work to figure out the balance between my Film tailoring, personal business and personal life dynamic.
This past year particularly: Ive really worked on balancing work life scheduling time for my union job, personal job and social life. The biggest issue for me as a self employed person was saying NO to projects, In the past I have packed my whole schedule with work with out making time for myself.
Since I reached my goal ( October I was sworn into IASTE Local 705 (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) and have been able to work on union projects I have very little extra time for side work and have been able to turn down smaller projects that do not make sense financially or creatively.
I learned to value my downtime and give myself the space to recoup which has made me a more focused and even better at both my careers.
I have also learned to keep a pretty extensive schedule and keep track of all of my responsibilities and various projects. (Something I was not really great at in the past.)
And finally I have learned to block out time from work to enjoy my life. I will working really hard on a show with side projects going in between then take off several weeks to have quality of life time.
It took me a really long time to get to this space but now that I am here I feel pretty accomplished and grateful for all of the sacrifice and hard work it took to get to this place.
This whole experience working full-time, going back to school , while dealing with some very disruptive personal life situations was one of the hardest roads I have traveled so far. By no means am I exactly where I want to be as Im new to this part of the industry and have a few years more of developing relationships etc. I am through the threshold and am simply another example of countless more stories of hard work and perseverance paying off.
I just want to encourage anyone who has aspirations to fulfil follow your intuition and keep working through the inevitable ruts, unsupportive people, and all of the other life distractions. It may take several years but in the end will be worth the effort.
