Wednesday 18 July 2012

Dream Number One

Every week I am going to tell you a dream I have for the future. Be it near or far only time will tell, if I reach them, only time will tell. They may change with time, but for now, they are what I am clinging to, to drive me towards health and happiness.

My husband and I are living independently. The only benefit I receive from the state is a free prescription for my Epilepsy medication. Life is not about searching for the next commitment and saving for next month's rainy day which always comes three weeks earlier than expected!
I am working. Nothing fancy. I do not want to find a major career. I am 37 and do not intend to spend the first years after I find health stretching myself to the limit and pushing myself under. The intention is to not start my own business as I have done in the past, unless I find someone who will be willing to take the time and effort burden from me. I want to work nine to five and come home, away from the 'office'.
An ideal place to start is working in a charity shop, as a volunteer, with the assistance of the benefit system's back-to-work scheme. By getting this experience, I could then start in a small chain retail outlet, where, maybe over time, I might move through the organisation taking on more shifts and progressing to supervisor or assistant manager.
When I was about thirteen years old The Clothes Show appeared on BBC One, at tea time on Sunday evenings. Selina Scott and Jeff Banks would tell us all about the fashion industry from the inspirations, to the shop floor and then of course, how to recreate the cat walk finery with a tighter budget. This was repeated in the monthly magazine, which I bought and eventually had as a Christmas present subscription every year. It gave more inspiration, more encouragement and most importantly it showed me where my path was going. From being a young child I had been very particular about my clothes, I knew my style and no one was going to tell me any different. From the age of nine and ten I might try on nine or ten outfits (I'm not exaggerating!) from my wardrobe before breakfast at the weekend, before finding the right one to suit my mood (and then change during the day too if my mood changed!) Clothes were my expression of me. Mum didn't realise how she encouraged this by finding some of our clothes in jumble sales. This included one week, finding us black sacks full of handmade clothes from an unknown donator. I was hooked, Jeff Banks only cemented the idea in my head.
So unlike my teenage dream of being a milliner or knitwear designer (I have been designing knitwear for the last few years, it just takes a lot of funds, a lot of time and effort to sell it-even online- and unless I eventually sold a few designs to major designers or knitting pattern publishers on a regular basis, it would not support us) I intend to sell fashion in a store, run by someone else and help customers find the right clothes for them.
I have dreams outside of work which would fulfil my other passions and I will tell you about them another time.

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