About

Who I Am, What I Do, and Why I Do It

I am a nontraditional student at Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). That means I did not go to college straight out of high school. In fact, I waited 20 years to go after a bachelor’s degree.

After a successful career as a corporate cake decorator trainer, where I traveled the tri-state area doing seminars, designing holiday and special occasion cakes, and writing cake-decorating manuals, I was bored and sought out a new career path. During this time of boredom, I enrolled in the Citizen’s Police Academy course (it is free to residents to learn about our community’s police department) at the West Allis Police Department and learned that they will not look at a résumé if the applicant does not have a bachelor’s degree. I thought if a small, community police department would not hire someone without a BA/BS, what chance did I have of switching careers with an associate’s degree in Visual Communication/Computer Graphics? So, I made inquiries that led me to the Technical Communication program at MSOE.

My time at MSOE has led me to a wonderful job as a technical writer for an international construction equipment manufacturer, Wacker Neuson, working in their North American headquarters in Menomonee Falls, WI. It is the little things that most people take for granted that I love most about my job—wearing jeans every day, not working weekends and holidays, rarely working more than 40 hours a week, having a supportive boss, working with the best team of writers with a diverse skill set, and opportunities for upward mobility or working at one of our international locations.

While I was not bored any longer, I found I was at a loss about what to do with my free time and I missed the color and creativity that my former life provided. My earlier career was my life for 50-70+ hours a week and I suddenly had every weekend free and I was accruing student loans. So I did what every sane person would do, I started a face painting business to pay off my loans, repair my home, and take a vacation for the first time in 10 years.

So far, my business had expanded via word-of-mouth and I booked between 2-6 gigs a month. It was busy enough to pay my student loans and build a modest savings, but not so busy that I would exhaust myself or need to hire and train someone. Of course, the quarantine changed that and I will have to rebuild next year by creating a marketing plan, a website, and cultivating a social media presence. Nevertheless, having built my business without a digital presence, I am confident that I will be even more successful with one, and I still get to wear jeans every day.

In my free time, yes, I do have free time, I like to spend time with friends and family, read books by G. A. Aiken, Agatha Christie, J. K. Rowling, Tony Robbins, and Rebekah Bryan, and do yardwork. That last one is a lie; I hate yardwork. My goal is to make enough money that I can afford to retain someone to do that for me [grin].