.png)
When I was a little kid, my dream vocation was a grocery store bagger. I imagined for years that when I turned 16 that I would get to improve the world with one correctly loaded bag at a time! Seeing new faces every day, working quickly, and getting work that awesome conveyer belt seemed like the BEST job possible to this inner child. I always planned to apply to a local supermarket when I turned 16, but life had different plans for me.
In my 28 years of life, I have delivered newspapers, babysat, hoed fields for a farmer, made snow cones in a "Snowie" shack, managed said snow cone shack, worked for a graphic designer, taught piano lessons at a piano studio, opened my own piano studio, worked in medical records, got a CCA coding certificate in college, along with my associates degree, watched kids for daycare, and opened a preschool in my home. All the while I had my cute Canon camera taking pictures for fun. In the back of my mind I asked myself, "When will I find something that MAKES A DIFFERENCE in the world, and still brings me joy?" All of the previous jobs gave me the freedoms to balance life, but didn't fulfill both sides of my brain. As an adult I didn't feel that I was "changing the world" as much my younger self had imagined.
And that's when our small town had 2 tragic deaths. A mom of 4 kids was killed by a drunk driver, and a young boy was killed in a tragic hiking accident.
This little town was shaken to the core. How could these senseless things happen? How will the families and friends of these people survive?
When these terrible events happened, one of the first things I noticed were pictures. Every day for weeks after the accident families were posting photos on social media with stories about these two beautiful souls we lost. Each day we could see sweet reminders of the lives they lived and the people that they loved. The daily reminder that they had lived loving lives with family and friends helped everyone grieving to feel connected and enabled us to talk about our grief.
And that's when I decided that photos could change the world. If one more memory of our loved ones can be captured, we should capture it. One more photo of the ones that are gone would bring one more memory that cannot be captured. And that is when I decided photography was going to a marathon with the destination of "NOT A HOBBY". I want to be passionate enough, educated enough, and practiced enough to serve the people around me and hold on to one more good memory before life passes us by.
I am so grateful to have found something that uses both sides of my brain equally, and lets me get out into the beautiful landscape of Alaska and bring happiness to others. Even though I've never been a grocery store bagger, my dreams really have come true by serving the amazing clients of Valdez, Alaska.
Comments