Harder Than It Seems **

As I’ve been working on updating my website and blog, I have found it harder than I expected to upgrade and improve things. Something that seems like it should be simple proves to involve something way more complicated. I don’t think it has so much to do with WordPress as it has to do with me needing to refresh my skills. In my previous career, I didn’t build or maintain websites of any fashion. Now I’m trying to learn how to put menus where I want them, pick photos appropriate to my written content, and figure out a logo.

Some of you may be thinking, “Why don’t you just pay someone to do that for you?”

That’s a very good question, and the answer is very simple. I don’t have extra money to pay someone to do all the little things right now. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be learning about menus, pictures, and logos. I believe in paying someone else for their knowledge and expertise, and I look forward to the time when I can hire someone to do that. Right now is not that time.

Instead, I’m browsing themes and searching for features that I only realize a theme doesn’t have until I’ve changed over my entire site. There’s a reason I have an entire folder of bookmarks explaining how to make changes on WordPress, and I’m okay with that. I’m still working on finding a theme that precisely meets my needs and wants for my website, and while it can be frustrating, I also learn a little something each time so I chalk it up as what my father calls ‘OJT’ or ‘on-the-job training.’ This type of training and experience is absolutely vital to being a good employee or small business owner.

I have no problem with this because I found that many of my college classes did a good job of discussing theory and what I call “should bes,” but they didn’t often address the “really ares.” Does anybody else find that to be true? College prepared you for how academia wants the world to be, but it left out all the parts of how the world really is. That often includes practical, real-world experience in a field. I didn’t major in anything computer-related, but now I very much wish that I had been given more practical, real-world classes that helped with things like designing bits of my own website. I could have seen myself taking that class as one of those ridiculous core classes that overextends your college experience – and exorbitantly raises the cost. (No offense is intended to academia here. I just have a healthy realistic view of colleges, and I think they need an overhaul. That’s a totally different blog post.) Right now, I wish that college had been a bit more forward-thinking in recognizing that technology classes should have been required all four years instead of a history student having to take two science classes. I learned enough about biology and botany in high school, but I never have figured out why I needed those classes to study the history of the American Revolution, the Holocaust, or the causes behind September 11, 2001.

As I get older, I’m understanding more and more why students are foregoing traditional four-year college educations for trade schools and community colleges. While I’m working on my website, I wish now that I had more applicable skills instead of the reminder of classes I paid for that I haven’t used since completing them. If you have kids getting ready to go to college, don’t overlook the advantages of real-world, applicable skills for them. That might pay their way through a traditional degree later. Right now, I’m wishing for technology skills that I don’t have, but I’m slowly learning. My respect to those of you who do have those skills because it is way harder than it looks.

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Inspirational verses for the day:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills — to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you. Exodus 31:1-6 (NIV)