I work at the 7th Street Studio & MakerSpace, and last Thursday I decided to make myself a custom sweatshirt with our vinyl cutter. I browsed through Pinterest to find a cool design that I liked, then began using a software on our computer to trace the design and make it printable. I wanted to have each letter of my design be a different color, as I thought that would really stand out on the white hoodie that I was going to print it on..
I had to make sure each letter of my design was in the center of my sweatshirt, as well as aligned, and that took way longer than I predicted. Many times, I would successfully place each letter in the correct position, then when I would transfer it to the heat press, it would move the slightest bit out of position. Since I’m kind of a perfectionist, it took me around one hour to press each letter into the right position. By the end of it, my shift was halfway over, and I was fully sweating from how hard I was concentrating and from the 360 degree heat press.
My job in the MakerSpace is pretty easy, and my boss lets us create projects during our shift. However, when I was making my sweatshirt, I essentially blocked out everything else that was happening in the space around me. Students were walking in and out, printing projects on the 3D printers, making lots of noise, yet nothing distracted me from what I was creating. No students asked me for help–maybe that was because they saw how concentrated I was, or hopefully it was just because they didn’t need any help (I’m usually a good employee, don’t worry!!). Because of this one hour of pure concentration, I felt like I was in my own bubble. I believe that whatever environment one is in, if they’re enjoying what they’re doing and dedicated to it, nothing can possibly distract them. Maybe that’s just me, as I like a little background noise when I’m doing work, but I want to find things in my life that I enjoy doing so much that I’m able to do it without distraction in even the loudest of places. I felt extremely inspired that my passion overcame the distractions around me, and I will continuously look for projects that make me feel that way.
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