When I created The Blog Novice, my first blog entry, “Day 1” I had a goal of being a full-time student (along with a few other lofty goals.) This morning, I’m reflecting on my first week as a full-time student with astonishment, pride, and a sense of confidence of knowing that I can recreate my life the way I want it,  However, rearranging your life, whether involuntary, or voluntary, it doesn’t come without some discomfort. You can confidently expect some sort of pain just as you can expect a strong wind to blow in Chicago.

Having the afternoon opened in my life has not only allowed me to fill an afternoon class in it, but it has also allowed me to to create a space to test new career ideas.  Friday, I meet with my photography mentor that I met on modelmayhem. The afternoon learning experience I received I believe no college class could have offered. So, the amalgam of being able to part-time work, go to school full-time, be able to get an inside look at a new industry,  in addition to learning the trade from a working professional in that industry is an overwhelming experience. It’s the type of reaction an artist may have when he steps back to gain a new perspective on his own art work.

Life seems to have a lot of parallel to an artist. Our life is like a canvas. We are given a number of colors to put on our palette to create the picture we want. We are in total control. However, we only have so much space to work with (time.) If we don’t like the picture we’ve started to create, we can alter it to our liking. If we want to start a whole new painting, we can. The pain comes into letting the picture that we’ve grown so comfortable looking at go and being able to pull out a new blank canvas to start painting another one.