The Crafty Princess Diaries

A few years before I hit the big 4-0, I made the decision to return to school for another graduate degree with the idea that I wanted to teach full-time on the college-level. I had been teaching part-time for many years and worked one year full-time/temporarily. I remember waking up every morning excited about my job, so when the temporary job ended, I realized it was something I wanted to do badly enough that I was willing to take a chance on returning to school…again.

Along with big bucks for tuition, this meant sort of keeping my life on hold for the 4 1/2 years it took me to get through the program. I continued to teach part-time, had a part-time job at a public library, and increased my writing freelance load as a way to still earn a decent wage but have a schedule that was flexible enough to accommodate my school schedule.

It was a really big gamble for me. As a “mature” student, I wasn’t the typical 24 year old who was footloose and able to take any old job after graduating. I had a husband, mortgage, car payment, errr…a life already, so that meant I needed to stay local. This limited my job prospects to say the least.

Of course, I constantly heard the “what are you going to do when you graduate?” mantra from every Tom, Dick, and Harriet within a 10 mile radius. What if I didn’t get “the” job? What if I spend all those years and (gasp!) money for no reasons!?

My plan “B” sounds almost as crazy as my original agenda: become a full-time crafter and writer. Actually, as I spent those years as a student, my freelance work grew to the point that it was very close to becoming a full-time job. I very often had to turn down work because I just couldn’t do it all. This experience taught me that it is possible to write and craft full-time. It also taught me that to be successful at it you need to work like crazy and be willing and able to wear a lot of different hats.

All of this came to mind today when I read an Etsy newsletter I had waiting in my in box for a few days: Can You Quit Your Day Job? As I read through it, I found that a lot of it made sense after my own experience as an almost full-time crafter. The saying “be careful what you wish for” resonates a lot with the advice linked through this newsletter, but it is of course, a mixture of good and bad. The good part about not having to punch a time clock on a regular basis is that you can create your own hours, have a 2 hour lunch with your BFF, or go to the gym in the middle of the day. The bad news is that to be successful, you probably won’t have time for any of that!

As it turned out, I was incredibly lucky and landed my full-time dream job as a college professor, so plan “B” is now on the back burner. In fact, plan “B” is now really plan “R,” as in when I retire from my teaching job. Obviously, I’m still crafting and writing professionally, but very much on a part-time basis. I love my teaching job, but my second dream job is to stay home, write, and craft. I know that Etsy.com gets bashed a lot about claiming people can do that, but honestly, I believe it is possible. So, don’t ever give up the dream!