Hakuna matata

…it means no worries.

Everyone always seems so shocked when the new year rolls around.  But honestly, not only do I feel a huge sense of “it’s about time” but also a clamorous sigh of relief!

Adios 2010, you’ve been quite a ride, but it’s {definitely} time to move on!

I have had a love-hate relationship with these past 12 months.  They’ve allowed me to grow and foster some of my dreams and have made my passion for photography become so much more–yet they’ve stomped on many of my aspirations with brute force of viking strength.  It’s been a bittersweet journey for me.  I am unfortuitously (is that a word?) grateful for the support, encouragement and belief so many of you have had in me this year.  If I didn’t have such an amazing network of people in my circle achieving my goals would be endlessly tiring.  Ya’ll make it bearable.

I have had to accept letting go of a part of my life, that I never thought would leave, without reaching my ultimate goal.  School.  I have spent 20 years of my life in school.  And for that I am blessed.  When it comes to the point in your schooling that you have the option to carry on, or not, your education needs to be for you.  It needs to be something you enjoy and engage in.  Aside for the endless pit of student loans that I have accrued, and the endless roadblocks I continued encountering, I r

ealized that my life wasn’t what I wanted it to be.  I didn’t enjoy school, my creativity was drained, and my stress migraines were endless.

Enter, my Nikon d300.  At some point in the last few years of schooling I realized that my creative mind was suffering and I needed an outlet outside of work and school–so I got a new camera.  🙂 This may have been one of the best decisions of my life.  As trite as it seems, I feel like photography has rejuvenated my soul.  And I have been incredibly lucky that people have been able to see that in my work an entrust me to capture many important moments in their lives.  So though I have said good-bye to a part of me that I have coddled for so long, I am overjoyed to welcome this new adventure and move on!

I don’t, however, want to forget about 2010 and how remarkable it has been.  It’s forced me to grow in ways I’d not have expected.  I’ve been in business a little over a year and sometimes it feels like forever … while other times I sit and wonder how this all happened so quickly — just a few months ago I was in a set routine, afraid to lose control of my patterns in life … envying people making a living in the arts.  Just a little over a year ago I posted a facebook status update of “I want to be a professional photographer…” as if only a pipe dream.  My dad replied something to the order of, “what’s stopping you?”

While I know I have a long road ahead of me, and piles miles high of things yet to learn, I’m more complete than ever.  Seriously people, follow your dreams.  Man do I love cliche’s!  Life is too short to just go through the motions and dream a fantastic dream.  When you chase what you are passionate about, you’ll come into contact with an endless variety of other passionate people.   I can’t believe what the past year has brought.  Being a photographer has fulfilled me and made me, well, me again.  That girl who spent most her life (until mid-college and a few years after … those years I started settling for security) creating and getting lost in new ideas.  I am a better person because I’m exploring the things I feel made to do — no longer negative, bored, or insecure (not all the time, anyway :)).  I can give and be more to others because I am pursuing what matters most to me.

Thanks 2010– 2011, I have even bigger hopes for you.

THANK YOU! to all of my clients, family and friends, old & new…you rock my world!