I returned home tonight just before 10 p.m. from my weekend trip to Edwardsville, Illinois. Eventually, I made my way into my office and sat down to read through the multitude of emails I received since leaving on Friday. Of course, many of them were work-related. As is my practice, when I read these emails I accumulate to-do lists for my clients on what I call “The Big Board”. Staring at that board now and thinking about the week ahead of me, I have come to two conclusions:
- I do not want the weekend to be over.
- I’m not so sure I really want to do web design anymore.
The Weekend with Little Flock Church
The weekend was fantastic. It began on Friday night as I arrived at the church. Since I was the invited preacher to their annual fall meeting, I did preach. After the service was over and throughout the rest of the weekend, the number of folks there who approached me to say my messages to them were exactly what they needed to hear was overwhelmingly encouraging.
Not only did we have such blessed worship together, we also had great fellowship. I stayed at the home of Jeff and Tracy Zimmerman (wonderful hosts, by the way). Several from the church came over on Saturday evening to talk, eat, and play a bizarre but surprisingly fun game of mime-Catchphrase. Maybe I should explain that one. As conversations go sometimes, there were gaps of silence. It became a running joke to see who would be the first to break these moments of silence. Somehow, the game Catchphrase got started in the middle of one of these. So, for quite a long while, we played Catchphrase without anyone ever saying a word. It’s difficult to play this way, but a lot of fun.
Of course, I eventually had to come home. I’ve always found it hard to get back into the routine of life and back to the grindstone after a great weekend like I’ve had (namely, a great church weekend). But here I am. I’m doing my best to enjoy these new memories while getting myself back into gear for work and the other not-so-fun stuff. Which leads me to…
Rethinking the Career Path
As of three years ago, I was working any job I could just to earn the paycheck. I was never career-minded or overly concerned with finding the “perfect” job. But I did have an interest in designing a website (mainly for my own purposes). So, I read a bunch of books, articles online, got the appropriate software, and started practicing. I can’t say I was really that good at it, but I began to think, Maybe I could do this for a living.
As the night auditor for a hotel, I had plenty of time to work on my laptop during my shift. It just so happened that my employer was in the market for a new website. Long story short, I designed their current website. I worked for/with them for pretty much the entire summer. I learned a lot as I went along. Today, I am busier than ever working for a number of different clients.
There are wonderful perks to my job and there are things I love about it. For instance, being a freelancer, I make my own hours and work from home. I also love the creative end of what I do. On the other hand, there are many cons. I have grown to hate staring at code, complying with web standards, building sites so they function/look right in a hundred different browsers, and so on and so forth.
I have been questioning my future in web design for a little while now, but an email I got tonight has just about convinced me that I may be in the wrong business. One of my current clients had another web guy take a look at their site (my design) and he noted a number of compliancy errors and other potential problems with the code. I’m not surprised. I will admit that I have neglected much of the technical side of this website for reasons I’ll not go into. My point is, the cons are beginning to outweigh the pros. Plus, there is nothing more stressful than an unsteady paycheck.
I’m not saying I’ll quit web design. I guess I’m just venting some Monday morning frustrations after a wonderful weekend I don’t want to let go of just yet. I will be venturing out with other freelance possibilities and maybe a few other projects I have in mind, but for now, we’ll stick primarily with web design.
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First of all, J&T will be thrilled they are mentioned in a blog other than mine. There were so many of us who were not wanting the weekend to end nor wanting you to leave. So, PB blog friends out there – If you have the opportunity to make a suggestion for who you’d like to invite for your upcoming church meetings, I strongly suggest you invite Brother Jeremy…and then pray and pray and pray for him. (Gary, Dani, Kelly, Elizabeth… are you listening???) Brother, don’t stare at the big board too long. As always, we’ll be excited to see these “new projects” you seem to come up with while you continue on with web design.
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[...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI returned home tonight just before 10 p.m. from my weekend trip to Edwardsville, Illinois. Eventually, I made my way into my office and sat down to read through the multitude of emails I received since leaving on Friday. Of course, many of them were work-related. As is my practice, when I read these emails I accumulate to-do lists for my clients on what I call “The Big Board”. Staring at that board now and thinking about the week ahead of me, I have come to two conclusions: I do not want the [...]