I’ve neglected this website. Maybe once a month I get around to putting up something new. The past few updates have been treats I’ve concocted in the kitchen. While I did want to include those in the catalog of things I make, they weren’t supposed to be the majority of the content up here.
You may think the inevitable change to which this post’s title refers, with the ominous tone of the preceding paragraph, is leading up to me saying “Welp, I can’t keep the site updated, so it’s going away.” You’d be wrong, dear reader!
2019 is going to be a terrifyingly exciting year. You may be thinking that’s an odd description. Correct! But I quit my day job. I’ve worked for Verizon Wireless since November of 2010. This past September, they announced a voluntary separation program for select employees, for which my wife and I were both eligible. Essentially, we chose to be laid off, for a handsome severance pay out. We had started talking earlier this year about, in a couple years, moving back to Minnesota, near our families again. So when this came up in September, it really accelerated that timeline.
What does all this mean, really? Well, we’ve got a busy couple months ahead of us as we pack up to head north. And in that time, I’m also going to be researching and preparing to make an attempt at making things full time. In 2018, I made my first things for commission, I opened an Etsy store (though it also suffers from lack of updates), and I made more things than I’ve made in any other year. I enjoyed it immensely, and I want to use the opportunity presented here to take a chance on myself. Thus the “terrifying” portion of the description above.
Others in the Maker Community have far more experience than I at building things and creating content for the internet, and even they don’t do this full time. For most of us, it’s a fun hobby, that typically can be used to pay for itself, but not a source of actual income. Chalk up another reason for this being terrifyingly exciting.
I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job getting across how scary this is for me. I know very little about starting a business, or the best way to do so in my chosen field. Do not think though, for one moment, that my excitement doesn’t overcome that. If there’s one thing I know about me, I can learn something damn quick when I need to. And if this ends up not working out, that’ll suck, but I will be able to say with certainty that it wasn’t for lack of trying on my part. I have faith in myself, and I know the people I care about support me. That’s all I need.
