My eyes pop open. The light shining through the windows seems to mock me. “Morning” is a relative term for us at this stage in our life. None the less it is time to drag my walking corpse out of bed. Before long my mind is in a footrace with itself. So many tasks fill my mind as I survey the carnage of a laughably dirty house. Within moments the relative silence is broken by a crying toddler anxious to impose her will on the household. In another room our five-month-old son stirs awake (like he ever really slept) taking up mommy’s full attention. All of this unfolds in around fifteen seconds, and the house is suddenly a flurry of activity and noise.
In a few months one year will have passed from the decision to quit my stable day job. This act of insanity has been the greatest blessing and challenge to date from a career perspective. Among other things, my job is to improve our reach to a larger base of people here in the Southeast Texas area and beyond. If you don’t know, photography is an enormously competitive industry right now. Photographers are a pretty chill bunch, but there are a LOT of us out there. I bet you could name 3-5 photographers off the top of your head right now. My job is to get our message across, to connect with like-minded people, and to show who we are through our work. Easy right?
The one thing I opined never having before leaving my bank job was time. Time to pursue a growing passion for photography, time to spend with family, time to explore the boundaries of where this endeavor could take us. Now here I am, fully invested and what am I looking for? More time. The pressing tasks are before me every day, and at night my mind struggles to find rest because I know nothing ever feels truly, completely finished. So this morning, with the help of my friend Joe (well I do actually have a friend named Joe…in this case I mean coffee) I’m working on photography and reminding myself that this daily struggle is exactly what I want. This struggle is actually my joy. To be here every day grinding out ideas and thoughts, trying in every way I can to keep us relevant and connected, all while juggling my little girl walking in and saying in the cutest possible voice “Daddy? You wanna go play?” is amazing. I don’t know where we will be in another year, but I am grateful for where we are now.
Now back to work!
[Cool Mug credit goes to Sarah, one of our amazing brides who got me a perfect gift this last Christmas!]