New Patterns

I'm sorry that I've been away from this blog for some time. In one sense, not much has been going on to blog about. In another sense, everything has happened, and now I feel I'm ready to blog about it. Things are on the move. The patterns of my life are changing.

Everything is possible!

For the last seven and a half years I've been working full time as a legislative translator, but this spring I decided to take a break and do something completely different. Get out of the rut, gain a new perspective, try my wings, find my passion. A chance came my way and I grabbed it with both hands, and I'm on my way. A couple of weeks ago I handed in my resignation. I quit my job. And I'm swinging between ecstacy and panic. It's thrilling and terrifying. Writing this makes my heart race and my arms shake.

In an earlier life (i.e. before my career as a translator) I trained as a crafts teacher (I won't even try to explain the many a-winding turns of my life), but when I moved to Helsinki I left that career behind me, apart for when I occasionally held a short weekend class at an educational institution for adults that we have in Finland, called the workers' institute in direct translation ('arbetarinstitut' in Swedish and 'työväenopisto' in Finnish). It's basically open for anyone over 16, and for a relatively small fee you can attend classes in anything from ICT and navigation and languages to cookery and crafts and sports.

So, the incredible chance that popped up this spring is that I was offered to teach four craft classes for adults at one of the workers' institutes we have in Helsinki, plus two craft classes for children, for the autum and spring terms 2012-2013. The adult classes will deal with dyeing & printing, hand & machine embroidery, simple clothesmaking skills and surface textures in textiles. The classes for children will be a mix of different crafts such as e.g. papier maché, crochet, embroidery and fabric printing.

I won't pretend that it isn't pretty darn scary to leave a relatively safe and well-paid job and just throw myself into the unknown, but I feel I owe it to myself to give it a chance. They all say that it's not the things you do that you regret, but the things you didn't do. So I'll just do it. And next year I'll be wiser.

This song is my anthem. Follow the link and listen carefully to what she says: Madonna: Jump

I was going to write more about patterns, but I think I've said more than enough for one blog post. Many thanks for reading this far, and please return for Patterns Part 2, which will be more about crafts and less about me. - Annika