Art after the Army cont..

I was let go from a job I thought would be a good fit for me. I was tactically and technically proficient in this work, and even though it was not exactly my passion, It provided the same security as the military did for my family.

“Passion”, This word has been something I preached to soldiers for years. I never thought that this word would apply to me again at my age. I would always counsel my Soldiers on what they wanted to do with the rest of their careers. My favorite thing to tell them was,

” There are two things that motivate individuals, Inspiration or desperation.”

I don’t know if any of them listened honestly, or even understood what i was trying to tell them, but i have found the inspiration and desperation in my motivation. I found desperation again at my age, because starting all over again is really terrifying right now. And I found my inspiration in a childhood dream. To be an Artist, A professional artist.

After I was laid off from my job at the Food production company. I found myself desperate for money, to pay the basic bills. My wife had always told me when i was in the military, she dreamed of us moving back to San Antonio, and me starting a little caricature business downtown. I thought back to the hardships of having a business and how i hated the hard parts of it. Taxes and more taxes, insurance and rents. I stumbled across a flea-market here in San Antonio that didn’t even exist when I left to the military. It was like going to a small fair with rides for kids, and fair foods. I took a chance and set up a tent, and invested in a banner, chairs, and easel. There were already caricature artists set up at the flea-market, but it didn’t seem to interfere with my business. during the week I would go on social media and place ads to hire me for parties and events, since the flea market was only open on weekends.

As soon as I could start feeling comfortable that what I was doing on the weekend was going to be stable (which is still debatable). I started looking at schools again. Art school to be exact. I thought it was high time I just start thinking about the thing that mostly inspires me. After looking for a bit, I found myself at the Art Institute, here in San Antonio. Another place that didn’t exist when I left to the military. I visited the campus three times. It wasn’t til my visit to the VA that I found out the difference in price from San Antonio Colleges, that I went with Northwest Vista college. My case worker at the VA had a lot to do with me choosing Northwest Vista. The process and wait was painful to say the least. It took forever to get an appointment with a case worker at the VA. Thankfully, I feel like I made the right decision thus far.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.