The past few days have been a whirl. Alan found me a side gig which practically ate up all of my free time over the weekend, save for a trip to the mall and a movie date to catch Elektra. I felt the fatigue creep in yesterday after I met my deadline, but despite all the rigors of putting a powerpoint presentation together, I felt happy after accomplishing something I had done well.
It’s been a while since my creative skills have been put into play on a professional level. My workdays revolve around maintaining my boss’s calendar, printing and answering her e-mails, trying (desperately) to keep up with the traffic of files and coordinating a very busy office — leaving very little room for creativity — yet the money keeps me happy. I welcomed the challenge of putting together a presentation that would leave the intended audience spellbound — and from what I heard, we got the desired result when the one-man audience proclaimed he got more than he expected. With a reputation for being difficult to please, I was relieved we got the “wow” effect we wanted to get from this man.
It’s a big sigh of relief for me, too. I look forward to being paid for the work I put into that presentation — and I know there is so much more I can do now that we are not pressured by a deadline of less than a week. I used to whip up presentations complete with all the bells and whistles for anything from the CEO’s annual report to the Board of Directors or to his agency force, down to a simple teaser for a sales promotion we were unveiling. My powerpoint scores with the agencies I sought help to get employment from were always in the high 90s, and were topped only by my scores in Microsoft Word.
Maybe I should make a business of this — after all, I earned a good amount of money for this one job. More than the money, though, I welcomed the spurt of creativity which has long been passive in my professional life.
Pinay New Yorker 