Reverb10 Day 7: Community Dreamed 5156 days ago | | 918 words
December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)
I don’t know where I really fit in terms of community. In 2010 I feel like I’ve bounced around a lot. I’m not really doing any web design or graphic art anymore. I’ve finally resigned myself that it is just not where my passion in life lays anymore. I’ve focused a bit more on photography. Or at least I have really enjoyed shooting more with my Droid, starting the Arctic Shooter blog with photos shot from it. I’ve also picked up a Canon S90 camera which is in the Elph series and teeny tiny. I’ve been very impressed with it. It has held its own and gone everywhere I needed it to and done all I’ve asked of it from snorkeling on our honeymoon (in a waterproof case). But do I consider myself a photographer? No, not at all. I’m an amateur at best.
I’ve been getting more and more involved in the tech support world and trying to figure out where to advance my career there. But am I really part of that community? I mean I’ve joined the Technibble forums though I hardly visit. I’ve really enjoyed the PodNutz series of podcasts but I’m not really a part of the tech support community in terms of interaction with other people. I’m not even 100% sure I want to take my career in that path towards a network admin or server admin role. I like what I do but the burnout potential is so high at the Desktop Support level I need to work towards something else.
I have been dabbling with learning a programming language. Perhaps Python or Javascript. I have a decent grasp of HTML and CSS though even those skills are very rusty. I realize I have a much more critical and technical mind than I do an artistic mind and that’s where my passion has been pushing me so programming over design has seemed interesting. But I’ve yet to properly devote any real time to sitting down and really devoting time to learn.
As much as I try to convince myself otherwise, I am squarely in the gamer community as well. I love video games. I love the chance to catch up with friends while we play our way through a campaign or run after each other trying to out gun one another. I love the Xbox and the opportunity it afford to meet and play with people from around the globe. I really love that I can keep up with the lives of friends near and far that I’d normally not get to see much of in real life, all over the beauty of the internet and video games.
I did join the ranks of “married person” this year in May. So I’m part of that community I guess. I’m not really sure you could call it that but I can claim membership to that club now. It has been the single biggest change in my life this year and with it came a new set of challenges and experiences that have been overwhelmingly positive.
As we move into 2011, I don’t know where the year is going to take me or what communities I may end up a part of. I’ve not been a part of any particular web community since 9Rules. And even then I was never a proper member but I used to participate heavily on the site, and in the chat room (which I usually avoid like the plague).
I have always been a jack of all trades, master of none. I have too many varying interests in life and never able to narrow my focus to one thing and really excel at it. I thought all through life that the variety of my skills and abilities would be a boon to my future career in life. But now I realize I would have been better off becoming very good at one thing or one set of things. Instead of dabbling in the print world (both design and production), magazines and newspaper layout and design, web design, and where I landed at the end of my dabbling squarely in a job of tech support.
I really enjoy problem solving in technology. I love helping people to understand and use technology. I enjoy explaining technology to someone without a firm grasp in the area. This makes me very good at what I do since I focus on taking the world of technology and the internet and explaining it in terms laypeople can understand.
Where does this set me up to go in 2011? I have absolutely no idea. I have learned one thing from life so far is that at the end of a year, things can look very different from when it started. I’ve always been a bit of a follower of desires and opportunities so wherever I end up a year from now will be better than where I am now. At least that’s the goal for the year.
Reverb 10 is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. Use the end of your year as an opportunity to reflect on what’s happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. With Reverb 10 – and the 31 prompts our authors have created for you – you’ll have support on your journey.
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