August 2010

I QUIT!  Yup, I said it and it felt good.  I said it without another job to fall back on.  After 5 years of dedication and lots of frustration I had had enough and gave my notice.  Now don't get me wrong, I handled it professionally and did full knowledge transfer but after those two weeks I walked out and had nothing lined up.  Was I crazy?  I mean we all know what is happening in the economy and unemployment.  I knew the dire situation more than others since I worked in the employment industry but it was like I had gotten to the end of my rope and chose my health over the job.  Good for me, right!  Right :/ ?  Well it ended up being the best thing I had done in a long time.  I took the next couple of weeks to go visit family and spend time with my sister, who was battling cancer (and I'm proud to say, SHE WON.. cancer free as of today).  This is where "Mission Rose" started.  Now that I had all this time, what should I do?  Well clearly search for a job, but how could I take advantage of this? What do I like to do or rather what did I like to do, even better, what would I like to do?  And that's when I started to focus on me a little more.

I always enjoyed drawing, self taught, something I did as a child.  I kept drawing as I was in high school and college but it was something I did in private, always in pencil or charcoal.  It was an escape for me but nothing I was comfortable sharing.  So while I was unemployed my girlfriend got me the greatest gift I had gotten in a while, she got me painting classes.  It was very intimidating but freeing.  I think there was always this part of me that didn't want to be judged.  This was something I enjoyed doing and I didn't want anyone to tell me I wasn't good at it.  It was a short 6 week class, 4 hours on a Sunday.  I learned how to paint with acrylic and water color and I am sharing my first water color attempt with you all.