Did you guys do after school activities when you were little? I was the extra-curricular queen growing up. Not the “on every sports team” queen… ha. No, the singing, dancing, give my regards to Broadway queen. For years I was taking multiple dance classes, piano lessons, singing lessons, and even acting lessons every week. God… my poor parents! I vividly remember my mom saying she felt like a chauffeur for many years during my adolescence. Guess all the classes explains that!
Though I doubt I’ll ever make my Broadway debut (curses!), I still find those activities invaluable. So much of how I matured, grew up, and got to where I am today was because of my experiences and enrichment outside of the traditional classroom setting. Nowadays though, I rarely do these types of things today. I’ve only taken three cooking classes in the past six years. I did take Blogshop (which I highly recommend if you’re considering it), but in terms of classes outside my day to day- it’s been nothing consistent since high school. Zero.
My lack of activity really hit home a few weeks back when I caught a tweet during ALT Summit from Grace Bonney. During her keynote she shared the story of how she paid for the site redesign of Design Sponge. Her method? Selling all of her shoes on ebay. She gracefully stated “Invest in yourself. Not things.” While I don’t feel the need to sell all of my shoes her words definitely made me think about how I’m investing in my business. Graphic designers, web developers, photographers, stylists – I’ve invested in all types of things exterior to my business, but what about me? Granted, Grace was referencing an investment of that kind, but I have a feeling her sentiment was also aimed at our personal investments. Pretty moving, right?
With this nugget in mind, I’m really ready to change things up this fall- namely in the form of finally getting my act together and taking a photography and food styling class. I’m excited! I’ve been madly googling options and found some really great choices.
I’m so curious, do you guys take any classes outside of job? Did you take them growing up? Do you think personal investment is important beyond the age of 18? I’d so love to hear!
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Love this post! Motivating me to sign up for some classes I’ve been pushing to the back burner…
I’m so glad!
I’ve been dying to take a photography/food styling class in the city. Would love to know where you’re looking at!
Hi Alyssa! So for photography I’m thinking about Brooklyn Central (http://www.wearebkc.com/node). There’s also a food photography and styling class at ICE (http://recreational.ice.edu/Courses/Detail/957) but not sure if I want to spend that much money… let me know if you find anything!
If you’re feeling really ambitious, cannelle et vanille does food styling/photography workshops in Europe. One of the bloggers I follow took her class in Southern France and it looked amazing! Here is the link: http://oliviaraejames.com/the-workshop/
There is also this one, which they held in the Green Building in Carroll Gardens last year: http://feetfirstsessions.com/
Oh that would be a dream! I’ve definitely lusted over her courses before
. We need to catch up in Brooklyn!
I too was the queen on extra curricular activities. Ballet, Piano, Foreign Languages…. Today I still invest in myself. My biggest investment was of course my LLM but I still think that improving oneself is one of the best investments you can ever make. Now, I take speech therapy classes. It has been one of the best investments of my life especially after my season of Food Network Star where everyone thought I was Russian or South American or could really understand me…. I took all the nasty comments and made the best of them!
That’s such an inspiring story, Serena! And I can totally see you as a ballerina
Great post! I’m a copywriter and since graduating college have taken French, creative writing, graphic design, and…wait for it…pole dancing.
Makes me love life all the more!
That sounds amazing! I love the broad mix of classes
Never did I get to do organized sports growing up, so you get to fix these things when you grow up.
This March I decided not to buy “things” with my bonus, but rather spend it on a trainer twice weekly at the gym. I have branched out to include spin class now, I feel at my peak at almost 42.
No designer purse, shoe or jewelry has ever given me confidence–like the confidence I see coming off the reflection in that photo of you in the ballet studio.
Great post!
Oh goodness- I WISH that photo were me, sadly it is not! But I’m so flatted you’d think that. I totally feel you on the trainer- I did the exact same thing last year and it was truly some of the best money I’ve ever spent.
I haven’t taken any classes or extracurricular activities since college. There was a summer after college that I took up yoga, but once the free classes ended, so did my commitment.
Investing in time for yourself and putting yourself first is so important, but sometimes I don’t do that and I end up “paying” for it with my health and then getting run down and out for a few days or longer.
This post was a great reminder that putting yourself first and taking time for yourself isn’t necessarily a horrible thing.
So true, Ashley! Glad this post could serve as a reminder.
Wonderul post Clara! I also used to be an extra-curricular hound, taking singing lessons as a kid, and I started up again briefly when I got my first job. Right now, I’m a work-from-home mom, so I don’t have a regular office job- but I’m planning on taking some courses so when I do want to get back into the workforce, I would have acquired some new skills! I think it’s important to invest in yourself.
Hi Meenakshi- that sounds like a great plan. I’m sure you think about courses of this kind for your kids, but it’s so easy to forget about them for ourselves- isn’t it?
This post couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, too! My problem is fitting the time in — sometimes, I feel like my plate is so full with these other things that are necessary just to keep businesses running, so much so that I wonder when I’ll ever find time to fit in the fun, self-improvement things. But then I realized that I’ll burn out of all the business stuff anyway AND my work will stagnate if I’m not evolving. I feel some changes on the horizon! Thanks for the extra motivation.
And as for what I might want to do — for years I have been wanting to for realsies learn French. And I also want to invest in learning a lot more about web development!
I’m with you on the web development! There’s a great series of books… I think they’re called Head First. Anyway, I was working from one on web development a few years back and it was really easy to work through bit by bit. I highly recommend it!
Clara – I am a recent new reader, and this post (like several others) is so on-point and timely. I was also very into extra-curriculars growing up, and I find now that I’m not good at sitting idle. I’ve recently signed up for some crafting and cooking classes, which I am really excited about – I am sharing them on my blog this week. Other than that, I belong to Yoga Works and just love the range of classes they offer. What I find really motivating in each of these classes is that even if I go by myself, I’m surrounded by people who all are interested in the subject matter!