(originally published August 25th, 2018)
A few weeks ago I was a professional, gainfully employed, bonafide, full-time interior designer. Today I’m unemployed. By choice. Never in a million years did I ever imagine that this day would come. I wanted to be an interior designer before I knew interior design was even a thing. Ever since I was a little kid, I was fascinated by unique spaces. I came out of my mama’s belly button knowing I wanted to cultivate and create experiences through space and I believed I would do that until the day I died. (I mean, I have secretly dreamt about working full-time on my art and part time in a coffee shop, yes, but that has just been a fantasy of mine. We all fantasize!)
I remember stubbornly fighting with my dad in high school when I told him I was going to go to art school. And he flipped. “No daughter of mine is going to go to art school! I’ll show you!” To which I responded “Yes I am! I’ll show YOU!” I showed him. I didn’t give up. I stood my ground. I fought for it, and I loved every second of my designing career. And now, twelve years later, just like that, I quit so that I could join my husband, Nick, in Berlin.
I’m starting this blog to be sort of a travel diary where I can document my thoughts, lessons learned, discoveries, challenge. The main areas of focus will be gluten free finds (I’m a Celiac), sharing my art, reviewing books I’m reading, sharing recipes, interior design inspiration and other posts on how I’m using my time here wisely.
When Nick first mentioned his desire to move to another country with me it was only an idea, and I thought it was a fantasy. One that sounded fantastic, sure, but as they say, life is what happens when you’re busy making plans. And this was one of those plans. Quitting a perfectly good job at a perfectly good firm and moving to another country, without a job or school to settle into seemed impossible and scary. But here we are, a few years later, making it happen, and I feel this is the right decision for me at this point in my life. I am sad to stop practicing interior design, but I am not filled with dread about not having a job or a firm plan for the future. I’m just going to take life as it comes, which for me is a little terrifying, yet strangely exciting at the same time. I feel like my world just became so much bigger and I now have all these other doors that just opened up with a multitude of opportunities and I needed to put my career aside (at least for now) in order to be able to take this new life in.
Where does the name UmmmBerlin come from, you ask? Well, my name is Amber (pronounced Umber), so my sister suggested this catchy title which has my name and Berlin combined into one thought.
There are many other blogs about similar experiences, sure, but this is mine and it will share my version of events. The steps I took to get to this point were taken as a series of little tiny baby steps. Everything is easier to tackle with baby steps. I’m hoping that anyone following me and anticipating doing something similar will be able to find some useful insight and inspiration in this blog. I hope to be genuine and practical in my approach and in my sharing. I would also love to hear feedback from other folks who have already done something similar and have valuable insight for me! I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m all ears!
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@amberghory
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