Fall Update 2023: Art, School, Successes and Failures

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I decided this fall to way over book myself for the first half, and let me tell you- it was tough af. But, I am here to share a little impromptu update, as well as what is to come for the rest of 2023. Don’t expect a pristine tailored post, but rather, just me talking. Read if you’d like!

What Went Well

I think it is a good place to start off with on what went well, because not everything has been wild. First off, I was able to juggle so many things from starting homeschool with my 5 year old son, coaching soccer, taking on a new research project, and going to school fulltime. Lest not forget, too, I have been working with 2 clients and had a quick sprint with a 3rd, though for the time, they didn’t need my services after all. But having that experience was really helpful for how I would like to market myself in the future. I also was taking part in a gym competition, but more on that later.

Homeschool

Although it may sound daunting, homeschooling my kid has been the easiest thing I have taken on this fall in all actuality. I know a lot of people probably think that homeschooling takes immense planning, huge amounts of structure, hours on end of one on one teaching your little, but it couldn’t be further from the truth! Right now I have been homeschooling through Frontier Charter Academy, and let me just say how impressed I am! They not only send you all the supplies you need (free of charge), but they are super helpful, all inclusive, and honestly it is run by the best humans. Yes, I do have to spend about 1 hour after my son’s short 30 minute classes each day working through homework with him, but most of that is him. He really loves school so he will ask to do extra reading and math games, as well as practice his writing and communication. I wish something like this had existed for me, because let me just say I could have done without the 13+ years of bullying I endured at the hands of other kids as well as teachers and coaches.

Coaching Soccer

This one has been tough! I have played soccer off and on a lot in my life, including in my early college days, but coaching is a whole other rodeo. But, I can’t say I don’t enjoy it because I truly love it. Even on the hard days, I have found I am learning a lot not only about my players, but about how I want to be seen as a coach. This year I am coaching ages 5-6 which is a lot of fun because that is all it is about- fun! Getting kids this age to learn anything beyond that is a plus, but I am hoping in the years to come that I will get to add in more actual soccer-y things because I have a lot of knowledge and skills to offer.

Research

Now for the failures, or rather, teaching moments. First up was my research project. I went into this project having a certain image of how I thought things were going to go, and in the end, they did not. But, without getting to far into it, I will say I did learn a lot! I had intended to stay on this project through next spring but due to my declining mental health and having to prioritize things, I ended up leaving the project. I have stuck through a lot of tough times in my life, thinking “maybe it will improve” however if I have learned anything from these times it’s that it is 100% ok to quit if your health is in jeopardy. Risking your health wether physical, or mental, should never be a compromise on wether you continue on or not in any venture in your life.

College Fall Session A

No shade to the professors I had but this session in school was my least favorite yet. To me that says a lot too because I have taken all the difficult requirements for my degree program (cough, cough, genetics, ochem, gen chem, evo, to name a few) and these classes although interesting, just weren’t it. I found myself caring less and less as time went on, and it wasn’t only because of my very severe senioritis. Overall, I have gotten to a point in my degree where if the information is repetitive, I feel like I am just wasting my time. My degree is coming to a close, however, I just feel like I am ready to move on at this point.

All the Other Things

Really it’s only 2 other things. Client work, and a gym competition. So, with the client work it has sort of been up and down. For a while I only had my 1 client which I have been working with since earlier this year, then also had a return client, and another that wasn’t quit sure what they wanted, but I had fun with them anyway trying to figure things out. But, I am not going to lie, times are hard. I was marketing for my client availability for a while, but that in and of itself takes a lot of time and energy, even if I am just reposting content. Trying to find clients in this current market is hard, especially since it isn’t my main service that I provide; I mainly would like to provide art services, though recently I am thinking of not having that as an option for the holidays. It is just a jumble of thoughts at the moment, but I am looking into more of making my own creations and selling them over doing projects and freelancing. So that is that part, the second part is a gym competition which I am also no longer doing.

When it came down to it, cutting out the research project and the gym thing were the most reasonable options. Along with having mental health stuff going on, my body has also been going through a lot of things that I have had to address with the good ol VA hospital. It really has just been a tough fall, but I feel this second half is going to be better.

So, What’s Next?

So, I am still in school and will still be homeschooling and finishing up coaching soccer this fall, but I have some other opportunities on the horizon! This December, I will be taking part in an Etsy Vending event down in Salem, OR! I am super excited about it, but have also been super busy finishing up pieces for art prints, stickers, pins, and other merch that I will be selling. If you’d like to follow along my process of this and to get sneak peaks of potential prints and merch I will be selling, you should follow me on Instagram! Along with that, since I will have more time, I will be blogging a lot more often again, and continuing on my book goal journey. So far I am up to 38 books of 50 read this year, and if you’d like to link up, you can add me on Goodreads <3

That’s it for now, but I will be back with more updates, regular blog posts, and art! Subscribe to my newsletter to keep up to date with everything in the mean time! Thanks for reading 🙂