It’s the time of the Challenge Fellowship which is full of plenty concerns of the future. A couple of questions come to my mind:
- Do I stay in Detroit?
- Where will I live when my lease ends?
- Do I stay with my host company?
Any answer to number three means… it’s officially resume season. A thoroughly rough time in anyone’s life where self-doubt clouds any of our ambitions. Suddenly I’m not a graphic designer that went to four years of art school. I’m a high schooler looking at photoshop for the first time and fearful that any employer will look right through my fake ego.
- Future Employer: Why do you want to be a graphic designer? What are you good at?
- Me: Do I even want to do graphic design? Am I even a person? Quack?
As I compile my lifetime (a mere 23 years) of achievements, I am eternally grateful for Challenge Detroit. A jam-packed year after college was exactly what I needed to realize how a short amount of time can change your mind. I love helping people and the fellowship allowed me 6 opportunities to do so while in a secure job. I am now looking at my full resume of working in interdisciplinary teams on multiple projects. I see paper-version of Mariisa utilizing the skills that she has in a variety of ways, ways which I never encountered before.
Despite the normal despair of building my resume and my own skill-set, looking back at all that I’ve accomplished, I feel better than I have applying to jobs and knowing I can take on any “challenge”.