Where Would You Rather Be?

Working or Creating?

I find myself daydreaming about painting & creating while I’m at work. I have the free time & ability to draw & doodle while I’m on the clock, but I think about all of the different spots in the world with beautiful views & breathtaking artworks scattered amongst the trees. The beauty in nature is stunning & I find it all amazing. I love to stop & take pictures of mushrooms, flowers, trees, birds, & anything else that looks interesting to me. I stop to smell the roses more times than I care to admit. I need the energy given from the earth & the universe to feel inspired to create. I’m influenced by the things I watched growing up & the video games I played while stuck inside. I’m influenced by the places I went to & the pictures I’ve taken. I’m influenced by the places I’m going & the places I dream about.

I’d rather be enjoying the views than clocked in getting paid by a company that is really making all of the money. I’ve noticed before that the production side of my company wanted me to help them meet their monthly goals. I don’t get any benefits from helping them, but the production manager gets compensated financially by meeting those same goals. My boss wants me to do HR tasks like timesheets & reports, but those are his responsibilities that he’s trying to push off onto me to make his life easier. I get it, everybody wants to make their lives easier by doing the minimal amount of work possible to get by. But when you make $20,000 more than me annually before taxes & you get financial bonuses when our site preforms well monthly, don’t ask the guy at the bottom to wipe your shoes while he’s fighting for scrapes.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a decent job that I get paid for. But I went to college & got a bachelor’s degree. Not that it matters, but I graduated with a 3.0 GPA. Not the best, but for a “Frat bro” & General Manager of a radio station for 2 years, I got solid grades. I spent a lot of time on my Student Government trying to make campus life more enjoyable for all students. We put on paint parties with DJs, hosted comedians on campus like Chris D’Elia, Adam Devine, Gabriel Iglesias, Nick Offerman, Tom Segura & Bill Burr, put on concerts with people like All American Rejects, American Authors, Smallpools, Plain White T’s, & Smash Mouth. I helped build out the new radio station inside of the Student Union. We had to get our budget approved a year in advance & I had to fight to get necessary equipment installed. We ran cables, wires, completely installed a custom-made desk to fit the needs of the studio. We had a new space that wasn’t quite perfect for a soundproof room, but we made it work. Maybe one day in the future I can release those pictures & show the amount of time & effort went into building a $170,000 radio station.

I don’t throw out numbers & names to try & impress anyone, I simply state those things because I was there & I was heavily involved in making those things come to reality. From a dream, to an idea, to a concept, to reality, I was there & I helped. I find myself forgetting some of the awesome things I did in my life, but I want to remember it all when I’m older & I want to share those stories with people who are willing to listen. They don’t have to learn anything, but maybe I can inspire one person to keep pushing through the bad days & the rainy weather to get to a sunnier spot.

Looking through the Instagram pages to those production groups I was once a part of, I don’t see myself. I don’t see pictures of me helping or even enjoying the moment. While I was camera-shy, I was there & I don’t have much to show for it. I have backstage passes signed by most of the artists & pictures taken to cherish those times, but how would anyone ever know I was there? I want to create a legacy for myself that shows all of the places I been & the things I accomplished. I enjoy doing graffiti because I can do just that. I can leave something physical behind & walk away with the memory of creating something I find beautiful. Not everything is amazing, but it’s beautiful to me nonetheless.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder & that’s why this is my view of the world. It’s life through my lens. When you see these pictures, know that I stood in the same steps I’m showing you & I did it for us. I did it for the memories & the pictures to show my kids & their kids in the future. I can leave behind something I’m proud of long after I’m gone. Long after my legs stop working & my hands can’t hold writing utensils anymore. Maybe my name & reputation can live on for a few more years.

At 10 AM on a Monday morning when the sun is shinning & the birds are chirping. Where would you rather be? At work or outside living your best life? You can decide where the balance is & how much time you dedicate to others. I don’t want to work for 60 years just to retire to look back & be unhappy. Maybe when I’m old & watching a train ride by, I’ll see a tank & be reminded of the glory days.

The natural shadow casted by the sticker looks amazing. I could have stuck it a different way, but what’s the fun in that?

I do different facial expressions when creating the face, most of the time it’s only smiling when it’s on a train or lost in abandoned buildings. But I think I’ll start only making smiley faces because there is no reason to be sad.

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