Continued from Part 1
My concentration towards continuing the drawing was broken. I tried starting a new canvas in Adobe Ideas, but that was of no good use. I decided to try and pay attention some more to the high school students and the increasing noise they created. Maybe I was becoming that old man in the corner that I used to laugh at when I was their age.

She looked through the window near where I was sitting. It looked empty enough and so she came in. However the only seat was near me. I was technically taking up four seats, and so she asked if she could have a seat and a table – I didn’t mind. She was there to read and wouldn’t bother me much.

Some time later I went back to that first scene of the cup, mobile, and tablet. There was more work that I could do on that I was sure of, I just needed to get back and concentrate. I was there for that – and ‘C’ gave me the confidence to just go ahead and paint my canvas. She looked aside of her book and asked, “are you an illustrator too? I do graphic design.”

Backstory: before I was in any way considered a techie, I was considered an artist. I drew on everything I could get my hands on, and computers were just becoming my new canvas when I abruptly stopped. I had a very bad experience in a beginning design class in my first semseter in college and that just stripped my love of drawing away for years. Sure, I could design a website, but drawing, playing with form, contour lines, colors, etc., that stuff was pushed way into the back. With the iPad I’d begun experimenting with drawing again. Using the finger was fun, and usually I had the best time drawing when on a plane. This moment in Starbucks was a bit different.

She and I struck up a conversation and then some other persons came in. The woman looked like an older sister (it was her mother who just purchased a Cintiq). She and and her mother run a print graphic company and are doing pretty well. The younger woman explained how she was not long back into the area after a few months out west – she left for there after graduating. She was back home to save and work on her portfolio. She likes art and illustration. So we chatted.

As we talked, it moved from comparing notes (she’s better than me by a country mile), to giving her some tips about how to take her experiences forward. She’d been looking for some steps to take that would help her get into better positions later on. We talked about what web tech to know and how that fits into her print knowledge. We even talked some about programs and what she should expect from self-learning, branding, and portfolios.

It was me doing that mentoring thing again. I’d not figured that such another moment would happen so soon after ‘C’ and the art. But there I was being given a chance to pour into someone else.

We talked some about illustration and how digital can enhance some things that were a bit more of a pain to draw before, but how you had to learn the basics first. She mentioned some of the projects that she’d been working on and how she’s building towards something but not sure of every direction yet. There was a confidence in her voice though, she was going to work each step out as she figured it out. That caused me to open up a bit.

As we talked there was another opening happening. Yes, I was freeing up from the stresses of earlier. But it also hit me why I needed to come out to this place in an off time (to me). I needed to open up a bit more to the world outside of some of my more structured moments, hear and see other people interact with things that I’m probably overly passionate about.

There was this nice and relaxing peace that I felt as she and I closed our conversation. I could see that I was right about certain pieces of this area, and that other aspects that I would have to open up a bit more towards. Not so much even because I’ll be here much longer, but because there are things that I can plant here that would help others see a world that they don’t have to compete for, they don’t have to strive for.

I was here to be open for these moments.