I photographed my first show right around this time 9 years ago…
9. Years. Ago.
What was to be a normal evening of heading to another thrash metal show and me randomly deciding to bring my new $200 mirrorless camera along turned in my life changing completely.
That camera’s purpose then was to take better photos of my hair portfolio while I was attending cosmetology school … The man upstairs had a different plan for me tho.
All the years before that day spent fueling my soul of music, going to live shows, watching music documentaries, reading rock magazines and memoirs – finally made sense the moment I pressed the shutter and captured that first live image.
There it was. That was what I was seeking all along. It found me there in a rock club in the middle of Joliet, IL. My passion. My purpose.
A passion that I didn’t even know I had. A passion that was about to take me on thee most insane ride of my life thus far. I can say that because I have been designing and riding that roller coaster for the past 3,288 days. 78,912 hours. 4,734,720 minutes. Give or take.
A lot of those moments spent crying. Being bad at my craft. Listening to the opinions of others. Getting laughed at. Doubting myself. Making mistakes. Being broke. Facing adversity. Failures. Redirection. Setbacks. Loneliness. Disappointment.
I wouldn’t take one of those low moments away. Not one. Because they shaped me and taught me every lesson I needed to go through to make room for …
Happiness. Self awareness. Experience. Tenacity. Patience. Opportunity. Confidence. Knowledge. Grittiness. Character. Work ethic. Resilience. Relentlessness. This list goes on …
The most important one of all – patience. Nothing great you have your eyes set on will happen overnight. You have to understand that simple fact from the beginning or else you’re going to be throwing in the towel before the magic ever happens. I almost did many times.
This ride won’t be easy. You’ll have to design and build your rollercoaster all on your own. You’ll then have to find the missing pieces, ask for help to fix broken pieces and trust that it works out. You’ll redesign, restructure, rebuild and repaint your rollercoaster before you even dare step foot inside the ride. Then bam! Up and up you go and the ride goes from 0-100. Then come the ups, downs, loops, spirals…. over and over. Hang tight and enjoy the ride.
It won’t be easy but my goodness is it worth it. 🙏🦋
I’m not here to convince you to believe in yourself or your journey because I could give a hoot if you do or don’t – I’m not in control of that. You are.
I share it because no one told me any of this 9 years ago. I went out there and figured it out by myself.
I’m simply here to set an example so that you can see it IS possible. So that you too can power through the low moments and keep building. Keep riding. Keep going.
