Right about the time I was completing graduate school I discovered my true passion: women's undergarments. And landscape photography. After 8+ years in the corporate world I decided it was time to pursue my dream of making landscape photography my full time career. If I didn't make a go of it I knew I would forever regret it. Six years later that ultimate goal has yet to be achieved, though I am inching (and I do mean inching) ever closer to it. However, I've come to realize that 2/3 to 3/4 of my professional life is spent on photography, and in that sense my goal has already been reached. I'm sending the majority of my time doing what I love.
So what has this taught me about myself? Good question. Most of all I've learned that I have an artistic side, something I had no idea of growing up, having come from a not very artistic family. I've also learned that I don't live nearly as conservatively as I once thought. I've taken one or two big risks to get where I am. I've sacrificed security for freedom, a choice I'd make again, without hesitation. Finally, I've come to learn that we largely make our own luck. Hard work and good decisions will pay off. Trite perhaps, but true. And lastly, I have learned that pursuing my passion for women's undergarments would have been far more lucrative.
Ah, taking risks. That's the part I keep thinking about. That always seems to me to be more like jumping off a cliff than anything else. I know it's not, but still, fear can hold a person back.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I like best about this (other than all the women's undergarments you have me considering) is that change has been incremental. It's easy to imagine that you got where you are today in one easy (but unimaginable) step and that I couldn't possibly find that easy step. Instead, it's a series of decisions and choices that you actively make. That, for my money, is what it's all about.
Of course, it might just be about thongs and garters. I'm willing to be wrong about this.