10-5-1: Looking Back to Look Forward

I got to thinking the other night about how far I've come in the last decade, in so many ways. Sometimes it's easy to feel stuck in a rut and as if our life is going nowhere. But taking an objective look back (with the help of my email account!) really made me think, and start to appreciate what I've achieved and how much has changed.

I'd like to invite you all to join me, in a bit of a blog carnival, and share your posts with me about what you were doing 10, 5 and 1 years ago. What have you achieved, what's changed? Have you made steps towards your dreams, or have your dreams shifted? Do you feel as if you know better now where you're going next?

I can't wait to read your posts! Please come back and share your link below so we can all join in :)

Ten

Ten years ago this month I was graduating from an MA in Linguistics and wondering where I'd go next. I desperately wanted to go to art college but with no funding available for such a thing, and with not enough pennies to fund it myself, I went for the next best option, which was an MSc in Cognitive Science. It wasn't exactly what I wanted to do but I knew that it would be a good springboard for me to do my own research in the psychology of art. I spent all Summer working as a research assistant within the department, analysing hand-drawn sketches done by participants in a graphical communication task. Not quite as glamorous as it sounds (I spent hours debating what things were and whether they could be categorised as duplicates of similar tokens or were in fact new tokens), it did however pay my course fees and give me a small stipend to live off. At the time I thought I might stay in academia and do a PhD or move into the world of publishing, but really I had no idea!


In terms of family, I dreamed of finding my equal in a partner - and one who could handle me! I had no ambitions for kids at all!

Five

In June 2006, I had just left a career in publishing, after becoming disillusioned with the industry - I had hoped it would be more hands-on than it ended up being and I wasn't prepared to move to London in the hope of finding a more creative position. So I put the works in motion to make my erstwhile hobby (making copper jewellery and hand-felted accessories) a more profitable business, and thus was born Earthly Treasures. 


I didn't know where it might take me at that point but I felt so thrilled to be self-employed and doing my own thing, with my own talents, and without someone to tell me what I could and couldn't do/explore/work on.


Having got together with Father Earthly in 2004, we were now planning our wedding for the following year, and harboured dreams of some day building ourselves a little straw bale house in the woods ;)

One

June 2010 saw me 4 months pregnant, with a 10-month old to look after, and living on our newly-delivered canal boat which was nought but a steel shell sprayed with foam insulation on the inside.



I'd stopped making and selling my crafts during my first pregnancy as I didn't want to be breathing in the dust and fumes that my work required, so we were now concentrating on the Fairtrade side of things. We'd not long since taken on premises for the business and I was working there during the week whilst starting to plan my maternity leave cover. At the weekends we were either working in the shop or trying to sort out our lives on the boat. 


At the time I was really chuffed to have our own shop, and a place for me to start making things again when I got the chance, though the issue of travelling down from our boat was already rearing its head. And with another baby brewing I was beginning to realise that I might not have much time to further the business much for a while. But, as ever, I was willing to see where things took me :)


Your turn! How much has your life (and your dreams) changed???