show and tell.

“Paper Cut Out Light Bulbs” created by Freepik

 

A few weeks ago, Adobe Design held their quarterly company-wide show and tell: an hour just for anyone to present their passion projects outside of work. The agenda was pretty interesting but—it was during my precious lunch time. Thanks, time zones.

That morning I’d asked my manager whether it was worth going to. “It can be pretty cool,” he told me. “Oh, but I’m not going though. It’s during lunch!”

Still, not wanting to risk looking like anything but a gungho intern, I (and my stomach) grumbled internally all the way down to the 1st floor Da Vinci room, where a whopping 1 person was sitting in the medium sized room. I saw him through the glass door and squinted at the room sign. Da Vinci. I looked at him again. He smiled. I checked the room sign again. Yep, still Da Vinci. And that’s how I found myself waiting in the meeting room for the most awkward 5 minutes while we both tried to not make eye contact.

As you can imagine, by the time the meeting started, my expectations of it were very, very low, while my expectations of lunch were growing very, very high.

But what I didn’t expect was that this 1 hour meeting was so, 100% captivating that I nearly forgot about the delicious food that I wasn’t eating, a difficult task indeed. Our 1-man representation from the Lehi office presented on how he’d started a niche-yet-well-known role playing game company (honestly how did he have the time, considering all the products they’ve made??), and how he’d just successfully kickstarted their new product. A nice woman from New York told us about how she was a designer for a modern day circus-esque performing group, while another lady told us how she’d written and self-published two books (with a whopping 4+ star rating on Amazon, no less!!). A tall man from Seattle casually showed us videos about his upcoming year off of work, when he’d literally row across the world with an amateur crew in a yearlong race.

These people who’d been making such great designs at work were just as busy outside of work doing amazing things. And this was mind. blowing.

It really made me think about what I’d been doing—and what I will be doing, after I graduate—after work hours. It’s hard to imagine a 9-to-5 life without schoolwork to do afterwards. I’m still doing homework after work now, after all! But when I think back to my high school days, when things were a lot easier, I remember the hours and hours I used to spend doodling. I was always chasing some creative project or another, always drawing character designs or storyboards. But now? When I’m not working or doing homework, I’m just cooking, shopping, or tiredly melting into my bed watching Netflix. My older cousin used to tell me then that I should hold onto my free-reign, childish creativity as long as possible, because she felt like she’d lost all of it is an adult. And I’m starting to feel like I’ve lost all that energy, too.

But even though I’d been kind of resigned to that idea, that being an adult means saying goodbye to days full of crazy creative ideas, I don’t really know how true that is anymore. All those people I saw during show and tell never gave up on their passion for what they loved—whether it be gaming, writing, or rowing. I’ve been trying to take a page out of their book and get back into doodling, step by step. It’s been so long since I’ve drawn more seriously that I kind of think my skills have regressed! But it’s better to stop the regression now than never, and I’m hoping it’s still not too late to get back into it if I really try. I just want to have something I can be proud enough of to present at my own show and tell, one day.

 

Questions? Comments? What would you want to present at show and tell? Let me know down below!