Behind the Scenes

How many times have you attended a movie, a theatre performance, an art show, a conference, or other major event and simply just soaked everything in and enjoyed it rather than stopping to consider, what really went on behind the scenes to make it happen? Having worked at several events and shows, including my dad’s art shows, I know firsthand the kind of energy, time, preparation, and to-do lists that one needs to make an idea turn into an end result. 

Depending on how much you know about me personally as a shop owner, you may or may not know that my “behind the scenes” is operating daily in a foreign language that is not my own to make the business run. If you know that much about me already, what you may not know is that over the past seven years, I have been the creative force behind the scenes, while my husband has been the “German voice” on the front end of things. With the curtain dropped and an up close look at our behind the scenes, the reality of it is that I am essentially a “one-man-show” with only partial abilities.  

When things were smaller, my husband’s work life was not as demanding, and there were no kids in the picture, running the one-man-show was doable. But now things are much bigger, my husband’s work life has doubled, there are TWO kids in the picture, and my passion to sew and create, the exact thing that drove me to start my online shop in the first place, must constantly take the backburner to everything else. The behind the scenes discussion has been going on for quite some time… should I keep it up? Should I go another direction? If not this, then what? Despite all the hovering questions, doubts, and unknowns, I have decided to leap. 

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I have no landing plans, no safety nets, or predictable outcomes, but I am looking forward to my after-the-dust-has-settled moment. I don’t want to make claims of all the things I plan to do, or what I hope to have accomplished when it’s all over with, but the outlook is positive. The specifics are not etched in stone, but my general direction is clear. I am excited and feeling envigorated now about the “what ifs” that I will finally have the time to pursue. 

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One small change is that what I plan to say in the future will be in my own language. Such a statement should not be taken as a shutting out or shunning statement against the very customers that have supported me over the past 7 years, quite the contrary, it is for you that I write this. But my plans are borne out of a deep inward yearning to function without the restrictive “verbal handcuffs” that come with operating in a foreign language. 

In any case, I hope you will join me as one chapter closes, and I begin writing the next!

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