I realized this month that exactly ten years ago I was taking my first clay class. Right about now I was two-thirds of the way through Wheel 1 making ugly cat food dishes and had already made the decision to do this as a job.
We wrote a business plan, I harassed the teacher I wanted for private lessons and then spent the next year and a half working an average of ten hours a day to build technique.
It's fitting that today I'm again deep in plans for the next phase of the pottery. And making better cat food dishes.