Hi Everyone,
In today's world, be it a student or a working professional everyone is concerned about delivering good numbers & achieving their respective targets. Sometimes, it impacts their Work-Life balance. Almost everyone knows about the hacks like meditation, unplugging time, exercise, etc. However, most people fail to implement these hacks in their life because of unplanned schedules. Our latest tutorial by Andrea in this edition of our newsletter showcases "How to create a Journal in InDesign."
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Adobe Community Professional Highlight
I'm honored to feature the well renowned "Andrea Batts-Latson" as our community superstar for this month.
Andrea has been a part of our community for more than 12 years now. Andrea is an expert in multiple Adobe Products like Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop etc. She has created 8 InDesign Tutorials in row for our newsletter in the last eight months to educate our customers. Apart from these videos, she has done multiple streams on Adobe Education Channel, Behance etc. If you would like to learn that "How to turn the impossible in to possible" then I would strongly recommend you to read Andrea's story. It will surely inspire you to stay strong & achieve your goals irrespective of the hinderance in life.
Let's learn more about Andrea's Saga in her own words:-
"The best way to describe who I am and how I got here is through my biggest struggle. Here is my story.
I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I remember as far back as 7 years old. I used to line my dolls up at our basement bar and teach them math reading and writing. I was a good teacher. The issue is I had to do all of the homework I had assigned for up to 10 dolls. I love it though.
I struggled in school. I was a hard worker but it was so hard for me to comprehend and retain information.
Each year, I would get so excited at the start of school. I wanted to know who my new teacher was, what books we needed, was she going to like me, would I have nice schoolmates? I loved everything about school.
The school would start, my mind would drift during the lectures. I would zap out of it and refocus, but I would drift again into wondering what was for dinner, what was I going to do when I got home, or what will I wear tomorrow, or… before I knew it the lecture was over and I didn’t remember anything.
I would try to read books and either fall asleep or read and not retain a thing. I was an excellent decoder but had no retention ability and no comprehension ability. I kept trying. I would reread it over and over again and would still get lost in words. Words would just dance around to page. I would spend most of my reading time & refocus. So I figure I just didn’t like reading.
I was pretty good at math, but not with word problems. I excelled until we moved to the next unit and I forgot all the things I previously learned in math.
This would be my academic and regular life.
I finished high school. I had a great personality so not many teachers noticed my academic shortcomings.
Fast forward to college and the struggle was real. I felt like I was drowning at first. I couldn’t understand why I was struggling so hard. Some classes came easily for me. Such as PE. I didn’t really struggle in business, accounting, English grammar; business English, speech, economics, or health.
English literature, advanced math, history, social studies, and science were very complicated for me.
I eventually passed everything but math. The subject I was so good at in grade school, I couldn’t pass in college. After years of struggle, I finally went to my counselor. She noticed an issue. She sent me to the learning specialist. We did lots of tests and observations. She noticed how hard of a worker I was. She also noticed I had some challenges. She later told me she was thinking it may just be ADHD and a processing issue. She sent me to a specialist at School for the Deaf in Frederick, Maryland.
This specialist was great. Our session was supposed to be 2 hours because that’s what the school was paying for. Apparently, it was a fascinating session so we spent 5 hours together and would have gone longer but I had to get home to my family.
He asked me what I wanted to be. I said, “I want to get a master’s degree and become an art teacher.” During the session, I created artwork, answered question after question, played games, tried to solve puzzles, and more. He said I had to be one of the hardest workers he’d ever seen.
After the session, weeks go by. I was anxious to get the report. I knew it would say ADHD, he would give me a pill and counseling and I’d be good to go.
The report comes. I go to his office. He is reading his findings. He says you have a non-verbal learning disorder, dyslexia, short-term memory loss, etc… None of this is initially sticking, until he says, “I’m so sorry. You might not be able to be a teacher. Your memory retention just won’t allow it.” He said, “Your art skills are excellent! You can be an amazing artist.” Sadness erupted and tears fell. He continued…then he said, “You work so hard. Most people with half of your challenges would have given up a long time ago. You are the hardest worker I’ve ever known.” He said that obtaining an AA degree is going to be like obtaining a Master’s degree for me. Then he said these words I will never forget, “because of your memory and retention issues, obtaining and Bachelor’s degree and becoming a teacher are both unrealistic goals.”
I was crushed and heartbroken. I didn’t hear anything else. I left defeated. I didn’t do anything for a week. I just lay around depressed and cut off the world.
The school called me in concern. I didn’t answer for a while and I finally picked up the phone. It was my favorite advisor, Sandy Cavalier. She wanted me to come to see her. So I did. I showed her the report and she said, “How do you feel about this?” I was like, “I don’t know, I can’t be a teacher. My goals are crushed. They are unrealistic.” She said to go back to see the learning specialist, Rosemary Watson, and then come back to see her.
I went to see Rosemary. I was sad and in tears. We talked about the report. Rosemary said, “What do you want to do?” I said, “I want to teach.” She said, “I know you do, so do it!” She said she sees how hard I work and that if I really wanted to do it, she knows that I could. She said, “I believe in you!”
I left her office feeling better. I went back to see Sandy and she said the same thing. We made my schedule and started the process. I met with Rosemary twice a week to learn techniques about how I learned. I learned my process and the things I needed to do to succeed. I learned that my memory is like a whiteboard and has to do things repetitively to remember. Otherwise, it wipes clean. So I had to pick an area that I wanted to learn.
I chose to design and teach. This is what I am doing now. This is what fuels my passion to design and teach every single day. This is what molded me into who I am today. This is what I credit my success to. This is how I am an Adobe Community Professional today. I had people who believed in me. I, in turn, believe in everyone else and want to use my talent and skills to teach, educate, inspire, and make a difference in other people. The struggle is real, but we can get past it. This is my story.”
If you would like to learn more & connect with Andrea on social media then please use the links mentioned below:-
| LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Behance | Facebook | Education Exchange | YouTube | Email |
To learn more about our Adobe Community Professionals, click here.
New tutorial:- How to create a Journal in InDesign
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Behance Stream flashback
How to create an interactive layout & speedup the workflow in InDesign :-
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Top 5 reasons to attend Adobe MAX 2022:-
Prepare to be inspired by the lineup of extraordinary speakers at Adobe MAX 2022. This year we welcome to the stage a diverse group of creative visionaries, design heroes, trendsetters, and out-of-the box thinkers to inspire and empower you to create whatever you can imagine. Please click here to know the Top 5 reasons to attend the Adobe MAX 2022.
What's new in InDesign Beta- InDesign Cloud Documents
InDesign cloud documents are Adobe's cloud-native document file type that can be accessed online or offline directly from within the InDesign application. You can access these cloud documents across devices while your edits are automatically saved on the cloud. To Learn more, please click on this link.
Note:- InDesign Cloud Docs feature is available only to users in UK, Australia & Canada via Beta build.
Please refer to this link to know, how to download & install beta apps by using Adobe Creative Cloud.
New update- ID 17.4
InDesign 17.4 has been released last month consisting of Improved Performance & Bug Fixes. For more details, please click here.
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