Back to School Reflections
After 20ish years (formal education + work experience) in info/tech/product, in 2021, I made a purposeful pivot to pursue my passion for interior design. I submitted my resignation at work and enrolled in the Interior Design and Interior Architecture certification at UC Berkeley Extension.
I embraced my philosophy of 'go big and go home' and took on the full-time track, basically accelerating the pace of my learning so I could finish (a fully virtual) program within 3 years (you can take up to 5 years). My working title during that time became 'stay-at-home, part-time dog mom, full-time student'.
Now that I have officially completed the program, I want to take a pause and share some of my reflections on this insanely amazing and slightly cray cray 'back to school' journey:
Starting with the obvious - it is never too late to learn something new: I am calling this my careerV2.0 and I am the only one who gets to decide how many versions I get to make. Obviously starting from scratch in a brand new profession is going to be tough and uncomfortable, but the joy of pursuing your passion outweighs all of that. There is no expiry date on learning, proof: over 90% of my classmates were pursuing their 2nd or 3rd career versions and kicking butt while at it.
When the going gets tough, go for a walk (or anything that gets you physically moving): I went from being financially independent with a very well established corporate career where I had a voice and people cared for my opinion to being 'unemployed' (by choice and I am lucky to have that privilege), reading textbooks and taking weekly tests on topics I had never heard of. The honeymoon phase of 'oooh I get to pursue my childhood dream' was quickly taken over by a pretty substantial homework-load and intense curriculum. I committed to breaking away from my desk and devices to clear my head and refocus on the work at hand by going on walks, every single day.
Embrace the quiet, cherish alone time: If you know me or have ever worked with me, you know that I get my energy from interacting with people. Going back to school REALLY broke my entire social mold, I was at home for most of the week, only left the house for walks and household errands. I was mainly interacting with humans virtually - in my classes via Zoom. I was reading, consuming content, doing my homework, preparing for classes all by myself, if you don't count the 2 dogs at the foot of my chair. This tagged on to already having spent 2 years of WFH during the pandemic really shifted my sources of energy and taught me to be comfortable on my own.
'Block' plan your day: I like being flexible and impulsive with my time but I also need a daily to-do list so I can check things off. So I found a happy medium with 'block' schedules. These are broad stroke categories of activities that you allocate 1-3 hours of time, what you do within that and how you make it through the to-do list is flexible. Typically, while in school, I had these 5 blocks - move, meal prep+ eat, study, chores, TBD. Move block included walks, workouts, study block included homework and/or classes, TBD was open for new, unplanned activities - you get the point. My goal was to strike a balance - maintain a happy and healthy lifestyle and perspective while I put myself through all this change.
Lean on your people: A big downside of getting 'off the wheel' and doing something off the beaten path, is losing the relationships and daily conversations and connections that I had with my coworkers and the network that comes with corporate America. Texts, calls, emails, heck even cold calls dropped as I switched my title to 'student'. While mentally I expected that, it did take a hot minute to adjust to it. It was a classic case of quality over quantity. I made sure I had a handful of my people that I rigorously stayed in touch with, who checked up on me and were there for me when I needed a pick me up. I found my cheerleaders and my critics and used their support to keep pushing forward.
Celebrate small wins: Part of learning and evolving is doing things you have never done before and coming out on the other side thinking 'I never thought I could do that'. That was me every other day. In 2 years 10 months, I took 24 classes, that is 24 new things my brain had to process and make sense of. That is over 150 straight weeks of sink or swim, not trying to sound dramatic, but Berkeley curriculum is intense as the education credits qualify you for a National exam. I commemorated every small win - an A grade on an assignment, the end of a tough class, impressing a tough instructor, making a sketch - If I did something for the first time and did well, at minimum, there was a piece of 'something sweet' waiting at the other end.
Tune out the noise: I am a late 80s/early 90s kid. I still have clear memories of life before the internet and social media. Today there is SO much information out there to make you feel insecure about yourself and your choices. There are so many experts claiming they know more than you and how you are doing it wrong. I have a history of bending rules and not conforming to tradition or trends. Switching careers at this stage is part of me re-writing the rules and exploring my life's journey. No one knows you the way you know yourself, at the end of the day, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Chase excellence and success will follow: A key takeaway from a famous Bollywood movie '3 idiots'. I will admit that this time around I got a little too fanatic and obsessive with my grades. In the early semesters, I came on too strong and would get a little upset if someone else's sketch or concept was better than mine. Multiple conversations with my husband, my own life experiences and this quote from the movie made me realize that I need to focus on the learning and not the grades. Also design is SUPER subjective, each person interprets it differently. As long as I am training my eyes, molding my brain and building skills to work with my hands, I am on the right track. (PS I did still get all As :P)
A commitment is a commitment: I cannot believe I am saying this but I really enjoyed being in school. It gave me structure, it gave me clear goals and I could feel myself making my way through the curriculum. But I also had minimal to no control over my schedule. Every 15 weeks, when the semester would change, so would my weekly schedule. Based on my class load, I would take 3 to 4 classes per semester, which equaled about 30-40 hours of work per week. I am a morning person and all classes were from 6 pm - 9 pm and occasionally on Saturdays, BIG adjustment. We only got 1 week off between semesters, no spring or summer breaks, just one month off for winter. I also wanted to be present for friends, family and other life events, including travels with main man and pups. Virtual learning allowed me to take classes from anywhere - I have dialed in from 8 different cities, including a final presentation at midnight from Helsinki, as I juggled life and school. I have only missed 3 classes, one because I had COVID, one because of power/internet loss and one because I was on an airplane. I did go all in, there was no other way.
Which brings me to the last one - when you know, you know: In 2002, I was preparing for college applications and told my dad that I want to study Architecture. I believed that I had a creative mind and that path will leverage my natural skills. I had always loved design, spent hours on art and craft projects and would get lost in blueprints and drawings in my dad's office, who is a Civil Engineer. He talked me out of it because I had really good scores in Math and Science and the world of IT/computers were really popping, so I put my plan away and ended up doing undergrad and grad school in Information Technology/Information Management.
Fast forward to 2012, I was a Solution Manager at Microsoft, and I came across a 1 year virtual interior design program offered from a college based in New York. I thought now was a good time to pursue my love for design on evenings and weekends, I enrolled in the program, paid the fee, got the reading material shipped to my home and started doing the work. 3 months in, I just did not have the time and energy to keep up with it - work, life and other things took over, I never finished it. I always finish what I start, I have no idea how this fell through the cracks.
Fast forward to 2021, I was the Director of Collaboration and Connection at F5 and adjusting to working from home. Something about a global pandemic made me realize that life is too short and that if there was something I needed to do, now is the time. It took me a while to realize that I wanted interior design to be more than a hobby, I wanted to pursue it full time! All my years of DIY house projects, hoarding design magazines, and obsessing over AD videos, this time around, the calling was loud and clear. When I submitted my resignation, there was a super unexpected and generous counteroffer to convince me to stay. To this day I cannot believe I walked away from that. But like I said, when you know, you know.
Thank you for taking the time to review my reflections, student life has been magical, now real-world awaits on the other side, see you then!