Hello dear people of Earth. No, I have not vanished from the face of the planet, however apparent this blog may make that reality seem. Three month's ago, on January 1, 2016, I wrote a blog post about my favorite music of the year 2015. That post was immediately followed by a bizarre chain of events that I could not have predicted if I tried.
First, I went back to school. Last year I graduated from university and received my BA degree in digital media communications. Unsure what to do after college, I decided to go back to my junior college to take two additional courses. See, I was one class away from an associates degree, and I thought I might as well complete that degree while I had the chance. I also just wanted to take a photojournalism class for fun.
So here we are, a college graduate back in college, and on top of that, I have been taking a lot of pictures. A lot. From festivals and parades to sporting events and street photography, my days are filled with taking pictures.
And yet, I am at a point where I have nearly no money and my future career is a haze of grey fog and uncertainty. Yet I continue to progress along this path because it makes me happy now. Perhaps one day I will wake up and think, "if only I had gotten a job, worked a normal career and made lots of money, I would be in a better situation now".
Maybe that is true. But the reason that I am writing this post is because I feel like that is a flawed outlook on life. If all we do is prepare for a future that may or may not ever happen, at the expense of out current happiness, what is the point?
See, I think life is about learning and growing and, yes, being happy. If you are not happy, change something until you are. That does not mean quitting your job and leaving everything up to chance, however slowly changing things in your life that make you unhappy and adding things that make you happy is vastly important. Sure, you might be sacrificing some future savings or you might be giving up a stable job, but is your personal happiness and well being worth it? For me, the answer is absolutely not.
So I don't have a traditional job. I work when I can and use whatever money I do have to support myself and no, I will likely not have a lush and comfortable retirement. In fact, I don't even know if I will be able to support myself next month. But I am happier now that I have been my entire time at university.
Just something to think about.
Until next time,
-David.
