Everything happens for a reason
Some have heard the story of my journey and some havent. And most dont even care and thats all good lol. But for those who want to know.... Here goes!
I started my journey working in Early Childhood education in high school (2006). We had a program where we were trained by a teacher to be preschool teachers with a real class of preschool children. I started taking photos of their journey through the year. I ended up being asked to make a slide show of them for their preschool graduation. After graduating in 2007 my early childhood career continued. There I took pictures of our kids for fun and to fit the themes of our lesson plans. Parents LOVED it! Did I make a connection yet that photography might be my thing? NOPE! I went on to get my degree to be an EMT. That degree pulled me back into Early Childhood Education because what school doesnt want a staff member trained to save lives?
Through the years I tried so many different jobs... That sounds bad, but I stayed at each of them for a minimum of 3 years, most more. Along all those years people would still ask me to take pictures for them. And whenever things got tight and my bank account was crying I could always count on a random photoshoot to pop up to save the day. STILL DID NOT EVEN THINK TO BE A PHOTOGRAPHER! Yeah im hard headed.
It wasnt until I went back into childcare because I thought it was the job I was born to be in since i was so great with children and teaching them, that I realized I might have missed my mark. You see, I got a job offer that seemed like the school of our dreams when it comes to early childhood education. And since I now had a daughter of my own I wanted her to experience a great program to set her up for success. Welllllllll I found out the hard way that childcare is NOT what it was in the early 2000's. And all those fancy perks and visions of the old childcare we used to love very quickly dwindled. Now I could trash talk that place alllllll day but thats beside the point here. The point is that it got to the point to where I started praying "If this isnt what im supposed to be doing and where I am supposed to be, please guide me the right way". And Jesus came up with a big ole slap of reality because Im hard headed and clearly wasnt listening to all the signs thrown in my path that this just wasnt it and I was fired. I had NEVER been fired from anything, let alone a job that most would say I am the absolute best at. And the whole situation was an argument over protecting children... WILD! Thought it was weird I wasnt hurt by it but I knew I did nothing wrong and stand firm on protecting all children as if they are my own.
I FINALLY took a moment and a light bulb went off so bright that I felt a little stupid for not seeing it right away. I asked God if this wasnt right to take me out of it... He did! Oddly enough I had felt driven to lean more into photography just 2 weeks prior and was making plans and laying out my goals and dreams for it. So I took the leap into my faith that God wanted me to stop messing around doing random things and lean into my God Given Talent he gave me. Part of that realization has been learning that my ability to work great with children is a huge part of that God Given talent. I have come to realize that families with special needs children often do not get the opportunity to get family photos because they are either told No or are just scared of how it would go. But I can fix that. My need to do laid back and chill sessions to get real emotions allows children & adults of all types to get the photoshoot of their dreams.
Now have I gotten it all figured out, No. And I probably got a bit over ambitious by trying to expand and move the business across state lines. Jesus really put that in check by throwing in some family emergencies that ended up draining my bank account and pushing me to a bit hopeless in it. It would have been and still might be completely understandable for me to throw in the towel and take the easy way out with just some random job. Thats why I did it in the past. I just wanted a steady paycheck that I didnt have to try hard on or deal with any of the business mess. At the moment I have the choice to lean into my faith that this is what God wanted me to do and this is just his way of challenging me and my faith OR give in and go back to a random job that has no meaning to me just to not have to deal with the hassle. So I am truly walking by faith right now and Im glad that these blogs are dated because it will be interesting to look back a year, 2 years from now and see where I was at my lowest and grasping for straws to be successful and where God really did lead me.
I hope you all take a moment to look at your blessings and look what God has presented you with. It is very easy to dwell on what we are lacking and what is going wrong. Some days I literally just thank God for the air in my lungs and a roof over my head. Everything happens for a reason and on Gods time. So lets all see in a year or two whether God sent me to be your photographer!