Adding Graphics to Life — Simarpreet Kaur
My journey of becoming a self-taught designer — Blog written by inkedstories.in
“In life, you don’t have one big failure but many small failures”, says Simarpreet Kaur during an interview with Inked Stories.
Brought up in Delhi, Simarpreet has been a Computer Science student aiming for success from the very start. She comes as a passionate and career-oriented person who wants to excel in whatever she does.
She has been a pen and paper artist since childhood and mentions that art comes to her naturally. But she never thought of pursuing it professionally because she was driven by the common ideology of earning a degree and settling for the basics. She studied hard for the respective examinations and spent her blood and sweat in the preparation which resulted in negative results. Slipping almost into depression, she started meditating and consulted a psychiatrist but it yielded no results. It was the first academic failure that she faced which dwindled her spirits as she had spent hours preparing for around eleven months.
Simarpreet began contemplating her choice and realized that she had to make a decision. Quoting a phrase, she says, “Throughout your journey, the universe gives you hints and you should take them”. She believed that there was a reason behind her not passing the examinations and that the universe had some other plans for her.
‘Sometimes life takes an unexpected wrong turn in the right direction’- Unknown When asked by her brother to try illustrations for the family business, she was a little indecisive about an entirely new path but realized that something is better than nothing and agreed to try it out.
Not disturbing her parents for the funds, Simarpreet decided to learn illustrations through the internet, and soon she came up with a menu for her father’s cafe. Everyone was in praise for her first illustration and applauded her for the same. While sharing her initial journey with Inked Stories, Simarpreet quotes, ”Whatever you do, show it to the world”.
Gaining confidence from her first home project, she started posting her work on social networking sites garnering much praise for the graphics. This led to her first internship when she was approached by someone from a digital marketing agency to work as a graphic designer with them. Though non-monetary, Simarpreet worked hard for it and gained a lot of knowledge in return. For further learning, she sold her CAT Examination books and bought a two-month course along with a domain name for her portfolio.
As she started enjoying her work and explored various aspects of the same, she started looking out for opportunities and soon came to know about a design company. She was offered an internship with the company where she designed applications available on Google Play Store and worked with various clients.
“As long as you try your best, you are never a failure”- John Wooden When she thought that she had gained enough experience to work full time, life didn’t let her take the easy way as she faced denial for a proper job from the company she was interning with. But it didn’t dampen her spirits and she started looking for jobs that suited her profile. Soon she was greeted with a full-time job in a tech giant and started earning with the help of her passion. Simarpreet passed every task given to her whether it was related to HR or designing and is currently working with the same company. She praises the work culture and does not mind working on weekends if required as she loves to do her job and strives to give her 100% for the same.
When Inked Stories asked about her motivation, she gives due credits to her failures which made her contemplate her decision then and led her to choose a career worth enjoying. She has been reading many related books lately and learns effortlessly from her work. She gets up every day to fight her failures and works hard to excel and make herself proud.
Simarpreet mentions that she is glad she didn’t lose hope and dragged herself all through this as she would not have been this content that she is now if she had pursued MBA.
Simarpreet sends out a message for people that you need to break the misconceptions that revolve around academics, if you fail at something that doesn’t necessarily mean that you can not do anything else. You need to channelize your energy in the best possible way. You are required to realize your strengths and rethink them if you fail as you never know what lies inside you until you find it. There is something good in every worst situation and you just need to have faith in it.
