Field Trips

I never thought I’d be brave enough to be one of those people that said things like:

“Oh ya… I ‘used to’ have a permanent job that I actually quit because it made me so effing unhappy that I chose the option of unemployment and relative* homelessness instead of my long standing potential career, which I was reasonably good at, and my guaranteed pension”

Never say never. I am now one of those people. I quit that job.

Maybe I’ll go back? Maybe not. I kept saying to others, I just want to see “what comes”. Something so yogi and existential that I feel I am misrepresenting myself in sharing that in these early sentences.

It is not exactly how I talk. I don’t usually leave things up to the universe. I went to University. Followed by a post graduate degree. Started work immediately after graduation. Neurotically arrived two hours early each day to work, worked until I realized I couldn’t remember my last meal. You know, that kind of Type A bullshit.

But now that I am one of those people I never thought I’d be, I get to say I walked away.

And it’s early so I don’t yet have to hold my head down and add… then I had to go back because I was hungry and poor. Granted I am working hard towards not letting that happen.

It wasn’t until I left my last job that I realized my passion and dedication to work can be applied to more areas than just the one I was in. So while I could make a big boss somewhere happy while I kill myself working every waking hour, it benefits me more to be doing that for myself. I knew I wanted to try something on my own, the dream of working my own hours, my own decisions and why not?- from a beach somewhere.

I spent months introducing myself and becoming really comfortable, even confident with the expression “Unemployed! And currently residing in the home I grew up in!” aka. Mom and Dad’s. I am almost 30, so while that is not abnormal in 2017, it’s not exactly cool either. I’m married too. Add that to the mix. But with exploration and risk taking you also have to compromise, insulate and make changes that allow those big beach dreams to potentially become reality.

So, months carried on with my happy face greeting others as an unemployed woman. I actually watercoloured and went on long walks, I drank coffee slowly and thoughtfully. No joke, I stopped to smell flowers. Legitimately. It was a dream and with each day  spent without an agenda I  knew it would not last nor should it. It was the necessary downtime to what was a highly stressful exit from my previous work.

Something happened along those walks and coffee sips where I started to build more confidence and  my healthy workaholic spirit back up. I don’t know if I was aware of ‘needing’ a focus. Something shifted without warning; I went from casually chatting with friends about wanting to sell sweaters to launching my own brand and e-commerce store in three days.

Three days! It was so exciting. I loved every single second. I describe it as ‘one Google question’ at a time. Things started off very casual with an awkward… how to start a brand search. I read some articles and started to have more targeted questions:

1. What is Shopify?
2. What is e-commerce?
3. How to be a graphic designer? (in 24 hours)

So on and so forth. I wish I had kept a list actually. But surely Google has it stored somewhere in some weird Big Data folder of all the questions I’ve ever asked. Come to think of it… that is not something I actually would ever want to see. *what is the least used emoji? (I feel sad for them).* Anyway, I went from knowing absolutely nothing, to enough to launch in less than a week!

So, a brand was born. Field Studies Co. and fittingly it is a brand that represents your aspirations. In my journey to achieve my aspirations- a life with my own hours, from anywhere in the world, working with people and being creative I built a brand that represents the aspirations of everyone else.

Field Studies Co. is Your Daily. I hope I can achieve a brand that is authentic and represents others and their passions or pursuits.

I think what launching comes down to is being okay with failure. I learned from having left my previous career that it is OKAY to need change, to seek it and that not every work environment or job is going to work for everyone. I love what I’m doing now so I pray to the Brand Gods that I have something that I can continue to grow! But I know that everyone with the right passion could do something like this, you just have to be OKAY with yourself if it doesn’t work out. Never try. Never know.

XO

mk