Life in The Family International

Every now and then I get enlisted to help work on The Family International’s publications—mostly illustrating comic series for teenagers. I love this work, but of course, the work comes with other things, things that aren’t always the”fun” part. Let me explain:

Last month, I was assigned a 5 page illustration project for this comic mag. Superhero stuff. I love that kind. So I labored at my computer for a few days and finally came up with the pictures I thought were good enough to be published. I didn’t hear back from the editors right away, but when I finally did, there were so many things they asked me to redo that it was almost… devastating, ha!

My first instinct was to type out a “hate mail” to the editors, outlining all the reasons why I couldn’t afford to go back and redo all my work, blah blah blah. I’d had a stressful day, and what I’d termed “rejection” wasn’t what I felt I needed at that moment. (Sheesh…I hope they don’t read this.)

But you know, sometimes we move too fast on what our “feelings” tell us to do, and when we do that we often miss out on lessons in life. This wasn’t a lesson anyone else had to teach me… it was just something I learned in the stillness and silence that ensued in those moments when I decided against hitting that “send” button (ok, it’s still in my draft box!) Thank God, in those next few seconds I decided to comply, to learn from what others were pointing out to me, and go back and see my own work as a challenge to take on. Retouching everything from scratch (since I hadn’t saved my original line art) was going to take some time and effort… but see, that was the challenge!

Let me say now that it’s part of the miracle that I’m even writing this post. I’m normally very stubborn about these things (Taurean, yeah!) especially when it comes to other people “critiquing” my work. (Not that I’m the first one to admit that, though!) And now, here I am, telling the whole world that yes, I was in the wrong. Yay! Now I can say, with Thomas Edison,

“I have found 10,000 ways it didn’t work! …every wrong attempt discarded is a step forward!”

Nyx is a vounteer Missionary Member of The Family International. Her missions have taken her through South East Asia, India, East Africa and South Africa. She currently runs charity projects for terminally-ill, indigent children in The Philippines and is also a child-education consultant, youth counsellor, freelance writer for TV, radio, magazines, a voice-talent, illustrator, artist, Events Host and Music Marketer. She is the eldest of 13 siblings, and a Taurean who enjoys spicy food, open-bar nights, long baths, photographing people, and throwing festive parties. Dislikes: Whiny women, bratty children, spoiled men. More about Nyx

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 at 7:55 am and is filed under Family Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.