Do what you love seems to be a popular saying these days, especially with the millenials. It’s all about the passion for what you do and not the paycheck. Sometimes it gets annoying, especially when that loathsome phrase “YOLO” is thrown in there too, but overall, I think it’s a great mentality. After all, you spend more time at your job than you do anywhere else, so if you hate it, that makes for some long years until retirement.
I feel so lucky that I am doing what I love. I love design. It’s my passion. Sometimes I daydream and wonder what would I become if I had any career option available to me, but I can never think of anything other than being a designer. The closest I get is chef, because I love to cook and it’s creative, but I’d never want to work in a restaurant—the hours would drive me nuts. Otherwise, I really can’t think of anything. I’m home as a designer.
Friday night, I went to Denver to go to an information meeting about volunteering to work at TypeCon, which is the the big yearly typography conference. Last year, it was in Washington, DC, but this year, it’s in Denver. So I went up with a fellow designer to check it out. It was an awesome experience in that it was great to be around other designers. We talked about type and fonts and checked out the amazing letterpresses that were in the agency where the meeting was held. I met someone who named her dog Ampersand. As an in-house designer, where you’re not surrounded by too many other creatives, sometimes it’s overwhelming to be in a large group of your own kind.
It’s what made me realize even more that I love what I do. If you handed me a million dollars right now, I’d still do graphic design. I can’t imagine giving up my passion for type and color and layout. I can’t imagine crunching numbers as an accountant or cleaning up blood as a doctor. I’ve been bogged down the last few weeks with freelance projects, and it’s a lot for sure in terms of my schedule, but I love it. I really don’t mind working on projects when I’m home on a Saturday.
Doing what you love isn’t just a silly phrase by overeager millenials, it’s finding your passion. Watch the famous Stanford University commencement speech by Steve Jobs and get inspired.
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