I keep this letter as a reminder to me of my ability to change and adapt. It's all an adventure.
​
"Come to the edge," he said.
"We can't."
"Come to the edge," he said.
"We're scared."
"Come to the edge," he said.
And they came.
And he pushed.
And they flew.
My Christmas Letter, 2014
What a year!
2014 has been full of changes for me.
I started the year transferring from Mackay to Brisbane. I moved into New Farm and have been sharing an apartment, overlooking the park, with Jenny McKendry. She owns the unit and the plan was for me to stay there until I found my own place but at this stage I am still there and hope to be so for 2015 as well, fingers crossed.
Being closer to Mum and Dad and other family members here in the south-east has been the highlight of the move. It is great to be able to see so much of the family so often.
I started my new job teaching Year 6 at Ferny Grove State School. It is a lovely school about 40 minutes north west of the city. The entire staff were very friendly and welcoming and the kids were pretty easy but for some reason my heart just wasn't in it and I found it very difficult to adjust to the new job. After six weeks I decided that it was probably time for a change in my life so I took leave and went on a journey to find myself, so to speak.
As luck would have it, I found myself at a career's expo for people in their forties and fifties which was being held in Brisbane around about this time. While I was there I rediscovered that I had a passion for graphic design. This is what I first started looking at as a job when I left school in the 80's but I had forgotten all about it when life got in the way, as they say.
I managed to sell my house in Mackay and enrolled to do a Graphic Design Certificate IV course at Shillington College in Brisbane. The course went for three months, starting in June, so I was able to spend a month or so enjoying my time off and catching up with family
and friends.
By the time June came I was rearing to go but I had no idea how exhausting a three month course (that should probably take six) could be. Challenging but brilliant. I learnt tonnes of skills and ideas and knew that I had definitely made the right decision.
The course finished in August; I received my certificate; I hooked up the Marys' caravan and headed north on a northern safari. I got to Townsville and joined in the Witham Golf Classic and journeyed slowly back to Brisbane.
While I was away, and since I have been back in Brissy, I have been honing my design skills and setting up various websites, facebook pages and other forms of social media in order to sell the teaching resources that I have been designing. I intend to keep building my resources and selling them on a website called, 'Teachers Pay Teachers'. Check it out http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Tim-Donnelly
I am taking more leave from teaching in 2015 and am going to give this design thing a red hot go.
Life is good.
Merry Christmas.
Love
Tim x
PS
I designed the baubles on this page. Just saying.