It's been almost two years since I sat on a lawn with a couple hundred other people baking in black nylon robes in the hottest day of the year (in May... MAY!). What have I done since then that I can be proud of? Well I got myself a full-time job with health care, an employee or two, and vacation time (I could take 60 PAID days off this year if I really wanted to). Most people would consider this a huge success in these dark economic times at the ripe young age of twenty-four.
I can't make myself see it that way, because when I walked across that steamy stage, the president gave me a rolled up form that I filled out and turned in to the Registrar later that Summer. Some months later Facebook was all abuzz, and I got nothing. So I called the school up and complained. Eventually I had an 11 by 17 inch piece of paper - that had nothing in common with the ones framed on your therapist's wall other than the words - saying that yes, Peter got a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Photography. And you know what? I was actually pretty happy.
That diploma hasn't been very useful lately. Just having any diploma has helped me get a larger paycheck and the aforementioned paid vacation that I am intensely excited for (ROAD TRIP!)
It seems that without the extra pressure of grades and such, I can't motivate myself to do anything of consequence. Something that I can feel proud of. Sure there's my thesis book, and my new website (www.peterleavittphotography.com), but nothing really new.
Thank god (or whoever) my girlfriend found a blog entry about The 100 Days Project down at good ole Yale. Michael Beirut (for anyone who doesn't click links) has his students "do a design operation [they] are capable of doing every day," and document it. This kind of repetition is wonderful at stretching your creativity to its limits, and it prepares you for the need to Just Keep Going, which I desperately need to practice.
So welcome to our effort to jumpstart the creative impulse we used to have. (You can find Katie's effort here: http://www.blissblogblah.blogspot.com/) Every month we will endeavor to do something every day.
Inertia is more that just physics.
Details to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment