I had the opportunity today to hang out with one of my great friends today in Greenville for a short while. I went with Otman on my day off to help him with paperwork and office matters for his business. It was really convenient that I was a Notary today (and that I remembered to bring my stamp)! I spent many hours in the car today with almost no sleep, but even though it’s almost tomorrow and the rest of the work week at my corporate job looms ahead of me, I am in extremely high spirits. You see, I was able to talk with my friend about her goals for her life, and we were able to listen to great music, laugh, have a nice meal (which Otman treated us to), and just be two girls who love each other like sisters and are totally invested in seeing each other succeed completely.

So why did I title this post “turtles?” Well, it has to do with the fact that I posted a while back about being overwhelmed sometimes about my goals as a professional photographer. It is my love, my passion, and my goal in my life to be the best. I spend every moment living and breathing photography. I believe photography is one of the highest art forms. I also believe that you have to feel photography. It’s not just a matter of click the button. For me, it’s driving down the road and seeing the ideal setup for a photo shoot, and then stopping to write it down and come back later with a model. It’s the mix of admiration and ache-filled longing I feel when I see an amazing picture by a photographer who’s out there doing it full-time and is living my dream. It’s about filling up multiple 5-subject notebooks with notes, inspiration, photo shoot ideas, and lists of techniques I want to learn when I should be sleeping. It’s about spending every penny I can on quality equipment that will last through fads, then reading the manuals from cover-to-cover a million times over. It’s about that feeling I get in my stomach – of excitement, elation, anticipation, & inspiration – when someone books a photo shoot with me. And most of all, it’s the enormous sense of satisfaction and pride I feel when my client looks at his/her photos and loves them! This comes full-circle to the turtles finally, when I think about how many people out there are aspiring photographers and think they may want to make the plunge to make it their life. Baby sea turtles hatch on the beach and have to make their way to the ocean. During this process, many of them don’t make it due to many different factors, such as lighting, obstacles, predators, etc. The ones that succeed have to fight their way through diligently. This is so true in a field such as photography. There are many who falter along the road because it’s too difficult and arduous. It’s a long road, and I know it’s still winding ahead of me, with only God, my fiance, family and friends to help guide me on my journey. But I’m in it for the long haul.

I’m gonna reach the sea and swim and thrive. And I know my friend is, too. We just have to keep going, growing, and never let anything stop us.