Do What You Love and Love Where You Live

I apologize for the lack of updates but I swear I've got a good excus- ahem, a good reason why I haven't been updating. Graduation. May Madness started with a frantic scurry to get all assignments in, study for tests, then graduation came, moving back home, telling everyone goodbye, graduation parties with family and friends. After a short "ah it's summer" reprieve, it was back to the full time job search (which was put on the back burner due to finishing up schoolwork. While the story of my current living situation is the seed of the post, it is not the fruit. The real purpose of this post is to tell of my two friends, and what they're up to these days.

Jen is a friend of mine and she's an artist (does lovely paintings). She went to art school and like me is a recent graduate. Now an artist's job search or employment experience I'd assume would be somewhat different than a writer's, and much different than a writer like me who wants to write for a company and do social media marketing and such. But Jen took a head first approach into life after college and moved to a little corner of Philadelphia called Fishtown. Living by herself, working as a tour guide in the Eastern State Penitentiary, and experimenting and pushing her art along the way. You can read about such adventures on her blog- Jen Brown: a life. It's tough, but she's living on her own terms in her own way and to that she deserves much credit. I don't know if her artistic painting skills helped her paint her new apartment, but she seems pretty charismatic about it.


I thought about her bold living and working decision, and it got me thinking about my own job search situation and living. But before I digress in reflection, let me tell you what Vincent did.

Vince is a friend of mine from high school two years younger than me. I hadn't talked to him in a while and saw him online and the conversation basically went like this:
Me-Hey Vincent what's up? Long time no see!
Vincent- Aloha.
Me- lol What are you visiting Hawaii or somthing?
Vincent- well i was sick of living in my parents homes so i wanted to go live someplace chill where i can do communal organic farming.
Me- So what, you just took off for Hawaii??
Vincent-Basically.
Vincent never went to college (to my knowlege) and was just working jobs from home and decided to pick up and go to Hawaii. Not knowing anybody there and only after doing some organic farming research. He now lives in a small cabin 1,200 up the side of a mountain on the big island. To me, an inspirational story of how in control you are of your own life, just in case you forget.

And I think a lot of times, we do forget. Change seems out of reach, or at the very least, as Matt Chevy describes, "inconvinient." I've been working, job searching, eating the same lunch, doing the same things, rinse and repeating. But my friends' stories of how we always must keep in mind that we're in control of our lives and what terms we live on. And while I'm not quite ready to move someplace without setting up a job first, (I'm planning on following the work and moving to whatever area I get a job in) I feel much more positive about relocating once my full time job is lined up. I'm starting to set goals and limits for work and job search, making time for writing, becoming socialon my social networks again, and exploring some new things like lomography. A sushi lunch, some new goals and hobbies, and I feel fresher already; making my life more mine one change at a time.

What changes have you made lately?

P.S.
Here is a view from Vincent's cabin at sunset, for us non-islanders!