Courage

I have written before that I knew I wanted to be a photographer at a pretty early age. At just 12 years of age, I could see it…literally. I would close my eyes and see myself flying over a herd of wild zebras on the savannah shooting them as they sped along (maybe there were just too many National Geographics hanging around at our house), There were times I would invite my friends over to play dress up, and then “model shoot” (seriously…I still have a few of those shots laying around somewhere).

There were a few years between then and the time I graduated from high school though, And even more before I graduated from college. There were times that vision of me as a photographer wasn’t quite so clear anymore. “Be safe”, other voices told me. So the plan of being a photographer got interrupted from time to time while I completed my degree in that quote-unquote “safe” field. But it seemed like every time I would let myself drift away from the camera, something would end up leading me right back to it…And I am so glad it did.

I do believe that we are all given our special gifts in life, and our job is to figure out what it is and pursue it. Only when we do that will be ever achieve pure happiness. It sounds so obvious and maybe a little cliché, but it is the absolute truth. Believing that is the easy part, having the courage to go out on that limb and actually do it, well…that’s a little harder. Like jumping from a high dive, courage to pursue your passion takes a lot of deep breaths, stepping back and looking at the big picture, and asking yourself some really hard questions. But in the end, we take that plunge; fell the rush of the jump and the splash of that cool water that is justification that we have done the right thing.

Aside from the love of my husband and family, photography is what moves me, it’s what makes me breathe. My job is capture emotions, people, events and the little glances that make up life…and it just doesn’t get any better than that!

At the risk of sharing way too much here, I am posting this photo almost against my better judgment. I found it during a recent trip to my Dad’s place and it really summed up the paths both my younger brother and I chose. It’s a photo I took complete with a blue construction paper backdrop (too look like the sky. Remember…age 12) of a scale-model of the space shuttle my brother made out of modeling clay. He is now…you guessed it, an engineer. If there’s a message in this, it’s “Parents: Encourage your little ones to pursue their dreams at the earliest possible moment”. Because they may just know exactly where they’re headed.