Things Fall Apart

It's a tough thing, you know, being young and still relatively new in a career field. You know enough by now, you feel, to be compensated well, and yet there are still so many mistakes to make and learn from.

Take plants, for instance. They have a troubling habit of dying on you when you least expect it. Sure, a customer has just spent thousands of dollars on a new garden. They have every right to expect things to LIVE, don't they? And, so, what do you say to a client who has just spent $2,000 on two gorgeous burgundy "Bloodgood" Japanese Maples when one of them dies? Well, it could have been she didn't water it right. Or, maybe, it had some sort of root disease that wasn't obvious when you planted it.

Or, maybe the drainage holes in the bottom of the planter got clogged up with soil and the tree drowned. Shouldn't I have known to line the bottom of the planters with fabric first to keep the holes open? Well, what about when my boss, who has been in this business twice as long as me, confesses he didn't know to do that, either?

Things fall apart sometimes, and there's nothing you can do about it except say, 'I'm sorry,' and refund the customer their money, even though it really stings because you know that an extra couple thousand in your pocket right now sure would feel nice ...

You can't blame yourself for acts of God, for not knowing, for being a human being just trying to do your best and do the right thing, gobbling up knowledge as fast as you can, but somehow realizing it probably isn't ever fast enough.

And then there are moments of greatness that keep us all going. Speaking of moments of greatness, has anyone seen Jon Stewart on The Daily Show (Comedy Central) lately? That man is on fire!!!! His career is most definitely exploding -- it's so refreshing to see someone point out all of the glaring hypocrisies in politics today and be so damn funny at the same time!!!

I think we all still have a long way to go before our careers reach their peaks -- check back in 5-10 years, maybe more ... just remember, Jon Stewart was making bad movies 5-10 years ago and now look at him go!! Anthony, my hubbie, was mass producing animatics for advertising cos., a job he felt was shallow, soulless, and incredibly stressful just 5-10 years ago. It was a real low-point for him -- and now he's just starting to feel like, after years of struggling to make it as a freelance artist, he's getting the jobs and the exposure he really wants ...

It ain't easy, that's for sure!! One thing Anthony tells me when I get discouraged is, "Cream always rises." I think what he's saying is that, when you're truly doing what you feel most passionate and happy doing, and when you work really hard and don't give up, that you have within your heart a level of purity and committment that eventually causes you to rise up out of the trenches and succeed at what you do.