So I haven’t done a “OMG its 2009 already!” post…so its only fitting that one month in, I actually write it. Over the past month, I’ve had time to finally take in all that happened in 2008. And after taking it all in…it blows me away. I first started with things that I was thankful about. Good Health. Loving family. Still had a job. A girlfriend that will cease at nothing to make me pop the question. Living closer to work so I could reduce my carbon footprint. Stuff like that.
Then I started thinking more and began to see how truly bless I was. This was a year where, for the first time in my life I found something that I really enjoyed doing. There is no doubt that Photography has been huge in my life. But don’t get me wrong. I’ve had many infatuations in my life. For the longest time I thought I was called to be a artsy musician. Then later on I thought my call was to be mechanic. [I still love cars..but mainly driving them now
]. I’ll leave the dirty stuff to the pros. So its easy to think that photography would be yet another such thing. It ended up coming much more natural and being a far better fit. Like when you’re there, you know it. However this year I felt disappointed because of the way I defined success.
And in all this, my dear friend Jesh pointed out something very important to me. But its taken this long for it to really sink in. [Yes yes, I know. Some of us get it faster than other. =p] As “adults” or “grown ups” we tend to put labels on everything. What exactly does that mean? We take everything at face value. What others have told us. How society and everyone else around us defines things. We compare. Success for example. For some it means making X number of dollars. Others doings X number of weddings. Being recognized. Significant. Published. These are all well and good, but is that what it is to you? Rarely do we take the time to explore what something means to us. Take children for example. Why are children so joyful and infinitely more creative? Why is it that children can play in an empty box for hours. To us, its just a shipping package. Ment to send stuff from point A to point B. But to them, they don’t know what it is. and they don’t understand when people try to define it for them. They look, feel, touch, taste, smell. They explore. A box can be a tunnel. castle. fort. window to another time. In the same way when we stop comparing and just define what things mean to us…that’s when creativity happens. That’s when joy happens.
I’ve had an amazing year. I’ve gotten to meet people that I would never have imagined. I’ve learned and grown so much. I get to photograph people in love. What more can you ask for. I can’t wait to see what this year brings.
-jc
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