Just a Real Nice Gal

This little dog of mine. He is so silly and so adorable.

My new year’s resolution (among other things) was to actively do more with my life and career. I’ve enjoyed living in Charlotte, this city has been pretty good to me, but Chris and I both felt like it was time to venture out. We’ve had our eye on Charleston, SC since last year when I surprised Chris with a weekend trip there for his birthday. I had no idea what to expect other than beaches, neither of us had ever been. We fell in love almost instantly and knew we wanted to call Charleston home. I was born on the coast, so I’m extremely excited to be back near the ocean in such a lovely town.

Here’s to new adventures, sand between my toes, and probably an obnoxious amount of beach photos!

In the meantime, I better get started learning how to dance like this if I want to blend in with the locals.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity in the workplace or I guess more specifically, being a creative in a nine to five kind of job. It sort of feels strange to force a natural process to occur between a certain set of hours. Design is a relatively new career field and while most office environments are more lenient than other, more corporate ones I think asking a creative person to be indoors at a desk for eight hours a day is problematic.

Creativity requires inspiration. You can obviously get that inspiration from books or websites but that can be really limiting to me. I feel most inspired when I’m out doing other things. I’ll see a pattern in a store and be inspired, I’ll listen to an album on the beach while my mind wanders and be inspired.

One of the things I loved most about college was how open my day was. I went to school in a small mountain town, there wasn’t much to do but I was always surrounded by nature. It was beautiful and abundant. Like most students I had large gaps of time in between my classes to do other things, usually nap, or work on projects but I saw the sunlight, I took walks, I took pictures. I went outside and I got inspired. I miss that a lot.

Creative people need to wander. We enjoy the unknown, we are curious and inquisitive. We require time and freedom to become inspired. A computer is not really a place for creative thinking, it’s a place for execution—it’s a tool for bringing your vision to life. I wish more employers understood that. I realize that there’s a need to have warm bodies in seats but when time allows it, let your creative people to wander and they will flourish.