It's possible!

I had an inspirational realization yesterday that I wanted to share on my blog.

It is this: Don’t ever let anyone tell you you can’t do something. No matter how long it takes, if you want to do it, if you believe you can do it, if you are committed to achieving it, YOU CAN.

In 1993, I realized that I wanted to try teaching. With great care, I worked out proposals for courses on the two subjects I had the most experience with: a self-portrait class and a fashion illustration class. Then I submitted them to the local arts center.

The director turned me down flat.

I was CRUSHED. I had been so excited about teaching, and about those subjects in particular. I suppose the director looked at my resume, saw that I had been a secretary for the past five years, and decided she didn’t want to take a chance on me. Whatever her reasons, I felt like someone had stepped on my dream.

I was too discouraged to consider teaching again until four years later, when I was offered an assistantship during graduate school. That experience made me that realize I was born to be a teacher. I went on to work at a number of area colleges, and I’ve never stopped teaching since.

Yesterday morning the winter semester started at one of the schools I teach at. As I was heading out my front door, it occurred to me: this semester, I am teaching a course in self-portraits and a course in fashion illustration, two classes which I proposed and developed. It’s taken 15 years, but I’m finally teaching exactly what I wanted to back when I was first trying to get started!

If I had given up when that art center director turned me down (and I almost did), I wouldn’t be doing this. I might even still be a secretary.

If I can do it, you can do it! No matter what someone else tells you, your dream IS possible.

The above picture shows me teaching an acrylic painting class at the Danforth Museum in Framingham, Mass.