Major Change.

I may no longer be a photography major within the next few weeks. If you want to know the entire story, then go ahead and read this entire post. If you do not want to know, then this is where you will want to exit this post. LOL.

Back in 2005, when I was a senior in high school, I was accepted into Kent State University's architecture program for Interior Design. Kent State was the only school I applied to because of how great their entire design program was [and still is] and because my parents both went there [that's where they met - awwwww]. Well, if you know me or anything about my life, you know that I didn't get to go to college because of an unexpected pregnancy at the very end of my senior year in high school. It sucked not being able to go to school, but I had new priorities in my life and I wouldn't change any of it for the world. However, part of my heart has always been with design, just like it has been photography. The thing is though, design was my original plan.

I am not taking any classes this session of the quarter at school, so I have had some time to think about school. I have thought about photography, just dropping out of school for a while to reflect on other stuff, changing my major, design, and other things that aren't art/school related. During all of this time and going over options, dropping out of school for a while just isn't an option that I want to take. These 5.5 weeks of not having classes is more of a break than I'd like, honestly. So I got out my catalog/handbook from the school and began looking at the other programs they offer. They offer Interior Design. The program has the same amount of credit hours as Photography, but not all of my credit hours/classes would transfer from Photography to Interior Design, so I would have to take a lot more classes. Right now, I do not want to take a lot more classes. As I was going through the catalog/handbook some more, I saw that they offer another design program - Kitchen & Bath Design - that I would not have to take a lot more classes. I got online and started reading more into the program and comparing it with what I have left to do in Photography and comparing it to the Interior Design program. The Kitchen & Bath Design program is an associate's degree, but I could always take more classes down the road to turn it into a bachelor's degree in the same field, Interior Design, or some other form of design.

After thinking about it by myself, I brought up the possibility of a major change to Mark. He's okay with it and knows that I have always loved design. We discussed it a little bit, and then I brought it up to my mom. We talked about it for a few minutes on the phone before I had to go because of the boys. [Yes, I still ask my parents for their opinions about some stuff. I love my parents will be asking them for their advice even after we all pass away.] I even talked to Mark's mom about it because she had called me to see how things are going for us. [She calls every weekend to check in with us since we live so far from home.] After talking to Mark, my mom, and briefly to Mark's mom about changing my major, I was comfortable with the decision to change my major. I was so comfortable that I e-mailed my academic counselor and requested to change my major from Photography to Kitchen & Bath Design.

Don't get me wrong, I love photography! I always have loved it. But I want to go down the original path I had for myself, which is design. If you know me, you know that I take every little detail into consideration when I am doing even the simplest task around the house, and even many people have asked for my personal opinion about their house. I am very creative.

I really hope that my academic counselor approves my request! I really want to go into design! I will focus on "green" design, which is incredibly important to me. I have already found some "green" design/construction companies down in Florida where I can do my two internships and then potentially work at when I get my degree.

Man, I really hope that this plan goes through for me.

Painting

You know, I used to paint a lot when I was in high school. I would paint on paper, canvas, stuff I made in my ceramics classes, and other stuff. I once did a project with a few friends my senior year in high school that was for a Ralph Lauren perfume thing. I also worked on the backdrop for my senior prom's pictures with a few other art students. I used to paint because I loved it so much. Now you'll only ever catch me painting the walls in a house. Don't get me wrong, I love painting walls very much! But I miss sitting in a chair or standing in front of a piece of canvas and just freely painting. I don't have any of my old paintings, which is sad. The only painting that I've ever worked on that I have a picture of is the senior prom backdrop, and it's not even the whole backdrop.

I have painting on my mind lately because two weekends ago, we went to Wilmington and I saw this couple walk out of a store with a large painting. I saw the price tag on it - $129!!!!!! Let me tell you, it was not worth even half of that! It was one of the simplest paintings I have ever seen in my life - something one of my boys could paint. I sat there and thought for a little while about how we don't have any paintings in our house - just photographs, posters, and vinyls/records in frames, and some other pieces of artwork. No paintings though. I want paintings in my house. But I want to paint those paintings. I want to sit around, or stand around, and paint something that I am proud to hang on my walls. I want to be even prouder when someone asks, "Where did you get that? I really like it," and be able to say that I did it.

Not only do I want to paint more, but I want to draw more. I want to put all of my artistic abilities to use because I feel like they are being wasted right now. What's the point of having any talent at something and not even utilizing those talents?

I'm done for the quarter.

The quarter doesn't end till late September [the quarters are split into two sessions], but I am done for the quarter. There were some problems with what the school had scheduled for me, money, and other stuff, so I just decided that I would take the second session of the quarter off so that I can focus on closing things up here before we move at the end of September. I wasn't upset when all of this came up about two weeks ago. Honestly, I was quite relieved because this is going to be a huge move for us. We're leaving NC and moving to FL. I know I've packed things up here in NC before and went back to OH, but that was only for 5-6 months and I put almost everything of ours in storage down here. This move consists of us packing everything and moving to a different state - a state where we will be living for 2-3 years. Also, we're moving everything ourselves. We aren't having a moving company or TMO do anything for us. So with the kids and having to take care of absolutely everything here by the end of September, I'm glad that I don't have to add any another distraction [school] to the mix. I love school, but moving is more important right now.

The two classes that ended today have gone really well the last five and a half weeks! I took Composition and Language and Fundamentals of the Internet. As of all of the assignments that have been graded thus far, I have an A in each class!! I simply owned the Composition and Language class. The Fundamentals class took me about a week to get into because it was all about HTML and CSS. The only HTML I knew before the class was what I remembered from my MySpace days when everyone would leave comments with bold-faced lettering, underline words, create hearts and other symbols, etc. Basically, I only knew the simple, childish stuff. HA! But I learned a lot in the Fundamentals class and even created my own Web site from scratch!!!! It's still a work-in-progress [I will continue to work on it even though the course is over], but I am very proud of myself for creating a Web site from scratch!