A friend recently sent a book, ‘A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life‘ by Donald Miller, which spoke a lot of taking chances and making adventures. When someone says, “let’s go hiking,” you just go do it.
In March of 2011 I wrote, ‘Would you DVR your own life?‘ on my Bike Nerd blog.
No one gets handed dream gigs and adventures. You want to write? Get off Tumblr and start writing. You want to get paid to travel the world and take photos? Well, cancel cable, save some money then travel the world and take photos.
I recently traveled to Newark Airport to meet Norah Lorway, and electronic music composer on her four hour layover from the UK. I also visited Brooklyn, NY a few weeks back to draw robots live at a friends fundraising event.
Neither of these events were in my best financial intrest. I can’t find work. I’ve never been so broke in my life. You know what that’s like, don’t you? Calls from collection agencies? Buying groceries with two debit cards, because you know you have $7 on each one?
But I can’t dwell on that.
I search for jobs all over the country and it makes me want to throw my laptop out the window, into the street where it’ll get run over by delivery trucks and kids on Razor scooters. A job posting in Chicago fits my 10+ years of internet experience, yet pays around my salary when I stocking shelves in a grocery store in the late 90s.
But I won’t dwell on that.
I draw robots that I sell online for people all over the world and those people tell me thank you. Not just “thank you” with their money, but also with their words.
So I’ll keep drawing robots.
I run Skull Toaster, my “daily heavy metal trivia” project on Twitter. It makes no money, but I got to have a conversation with a dad who is raising two children with disabilities, and he showed me photos of his daughter playing in a wheel-chair basketball game.
And he loves heavy metal.
That’s why I need to keep doing this. Doing my work.