The crazy girl who quit her cushy job and now makes jewelry

I'm not one of the lucky people who has always known what they wanted to be when they grew up. As a kid I enjoyed being creative, and I do recall telling my first grade teacher that I wanted to be a "drawer", I guess I didn't know that they were called artists. But at some point along the way I lost that dream and was completely unprepared when faced with the life-altering decision of what to major in at college. Unfortunately, not being that wise at the age of 18, I made the mistake of choosing accounting. How much further can you get from the free flowing creativity of an artist, than the rigid, deadline driven life of an accountant? But I was more concerned with making a good living, I thought that a big paycheck would make me happy. So I stuck with accounting, getting my masters and landing a job a Fortune 500 company. Almost immediately after starting I knew it wasn't for me. There was no room for creativity, in fact, creative accounting usually lands you in jail. So I spent my days lost in excel spreadsheets crunching numbers, for almost five years before deciding that the big paycheck just wasn't worth it. During that time, I rediscovered what I had known when I was six, I wanted to be an artist. I'm at my happiest when I'm creating something beautiful. And I've finally found my medium! Although I've dabbled in painting, soap making, and ceramics, where I shine is making jewelry. The day I figured out that I wanted to be a jewelry designer, that I COULD ACTUALLY BE a jewelry designer was one of the happiest days of my life. I FIINALLY found what I'm passionate about, and after years of studying and practicing a subject as boring as accounting, I cannot express how thrilled I am!  The Monday after Thanksgiving 2010 I put in my notice to quit my job, my last day was New Year's Eve. And today, to use a phrase that is used too much (sorry but it applies), is the first day of the rest of my life! Or maybe I should say it is the first day of my new life. I am not an accountant anymore, I am an artist, a jewelry artist.

It is a little overwhelming to be my own boss, I have so many ideas and things to do, that I'm not quite sure where to start. I also have this not so small problem. Don't think I'm being facetious when I say this, I'm not doing that thing where you list a strength as a weakness during a job interview, this really is my biggest weakness. I'm a perfectionist. That was actually pretty beneficial when I was an accountant, but not so much as an artist or entreprenuer. It can actually be quite debilitating, I'm paralyzed by the fear of not being perfect. I struggle with it daily. But as I've seen with my Etsy store www.etsy.com/shop/jomariejewelry, it's better to put something out there that's great than to not have anything out there because you're waiting for it to be perfect. Nothing is perfect, Jodie, and that's okay. This is my mantra. So I'm going to start my first imperfect day by blogging (check), then work on getting set up as an official business (Go JoMarie Jewelry!), then it's off to the gym for a class (I've got New Year's resolutions to uphold too), and over to the bead stores (I hope they've gotten in some good pearls), and finally back home to my beautiful studio space to work on an order. Sounds like an almost perfect day to me :)