Next month will mark 20 years since my first design job (an internship at the Design Council in their now defunct RED team). Looking back, I’ve done a lot of different things. I’ve started businesses, I’ve worked for others as a PAYE employee and I am both a Chair and a trustee. I’ve been on stage as a public speaker and behind the scenes as a curator, community organiser or producer. I even figured out how to deal with post-Brexit imports and exports. I’ve helped funds invest millions in research and startups and I’ve applied and received over £1M in funding for various projects. I’ve written three books and have more writing projects in mind. In my 50s, I’d like to start a school.
Recently, (maybe because of the perimenopause or the job search) I started to worry that I didn’t have a cohesive story to tell. I started making myself smaller on my CV. Took some things out. Flattened myself a little. But I’ve decided that life is too short to try to fit society’s ideal of what a middle aged woman in the creative industries should have achieved by now. I don’t work in accounting. I’m not supposed to make sense and the red thread is me. So I’ll continue with my contrapuntal career and look forward to the weirdness of the next 20 years. As long as I continue to learn and am helpful to my clients or colleagues, i’m good. It’s all good.