Goals

I was planning on posting this blog earlier in the week, and I’m glad I got busy and held off.  This morning, on a total whim and out of sheer boredom, I checked the e-mail address I have in the “About Me” section of this blog.  I’ve only had this website up for about a month, and so far all I’ve received in that e-mail account has been spam.  But today, I was beyond thrilled to receive an e-mail from a fellow aspiring photographer, asking me questions about my blog and how I got started.  And when I say beyond thrilled, I mean I immediately interrupted my friend Erin's day to tell her I got my first piece of “fan mail”, since she is pretty much my stand-in for a boyfriend at this point.  Then I printed out and framed Molly’s e-mail.  Okay not really.  But sort of….  

Anyway, Molly is just starting out in photography as well, and expressed a lot of concerns with being able to make it and how to get her foot in the door of the photography world.  I honestly wanted to hug her through the computer, she was so cute-as-a-button.  Everything she said, every frustration she felt was like a page out of my journal (if I actually kept one).  I hope I answered some of her questions and didn’t sound like a complete nitwit, and I hope she doesn’t hate me for writing a book in response to her questions.  The main thing I tried to tell her (and maybe didn’t do it too eloquently) is that it’s important to have goals.  It’s important to set them and always make decisions for your life and your business based on what you want your end goal to be.  Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the goals I’ve set for myself, and how they’ve changed so much in the past year. I’ve been thinking about what my goals today are, and what the best way of reaching them is. That’s why I smiled ear to ear when I saw this picture.

This is a photo Jess Kaczenski took of me a few weeks ago when I needed a good one for my “About Me” section. The reason this picture made me smile is because I am a country girl, through and through. My year in Tennessee was one of the best of my life, and I’ve dreamed of living in Vermont since before I can remember. I can’t imagine wanting to settle down and someday (in the distant future!) raise a family anywhere else. There’s something to be said for taking things slow, enjoying life away from the hustle and bustle of the city. There’s something to be said for chili cook-offs, tractor pulls, and songs about Skoal rings and cowboy boots. Okay, there's nothing to be said for tractor pulls, but there is something to be said for Ford trucks. My dad once asked me what I would do if I became successful in this field and started making real money. I told him without hesitation that I would buy an old, beat up light blue Ford truck, the kind with the big truck bed in the back and a removable top. That’s really what I want, if I ever make it big. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t use it to show up at client’s houses or weddings or anything in, but for driving around Lake Champlain and cutting through old back roads? There would be nothing sweeter to me. And that may sound crazy or just plain weird, but that’s just what would make me happy. Driving down the road, wind whipping through my hair, music cranked up on the radio. And yes, it would probably be country music.

So I posted this picture to remind myself of that goal. I have so many more goals that I only have mental pictures of:  I want to work for the studio full time and learn all I can from Dani and Danielle, I want to master my flash and not have a nervous breakdown at indoor ceremonies, I want to fight the urge to tilt my camera every chance I get!  But I really, REALLY want that blue Ford truck.  May seem like a small or insignificant goal, but here’s the thing: I’ve never wanted to be the biggest name in photography, and I know I’ll never be the best. But if I can wake up every morning and hop in my Ford truck, drive to work to do what I love, meet great people and capture their beautiful moments on camera for them, then I’ll be happy. Then I’ll have reached a goal.