Archiving some of my favorite posts here on my new blog from my old one…originally posted on May 13, 2010.

Growing up, I wanted to be something different every week. A teacher. A cop. A writer. A firefighter. Funny story with that idea. But I’ll save that for another post. In all of these different career paths, I’d have these grand, fabulous, exciting scenarios in my head of how my life would play out were I to follow that particular path. I’d picture myself walking down the street of NYC with my hair pulled back like Charlize Theron in “The Italian Job,” Starbucks in one hand, laptop in the other, designer frames, killer heels, on my way to a meeting to discuss the upcoming issue of Vogue, of which, naturally, I was the editor-in-chief. Seriously, I really would conjure these up. Of course, I was missing all of the w-o-r-k that it would take to get to such a point. Those daydreams were all about fluff. Dreaming and having  high aspirations and goals is one thing; but having weekly renditions of the former scenarios, and voicing them, kinda made me look like the boy that cried wolf. I don’t think my family or friends thought less of me or even viewed me as the wolf crier, I just think they knew that I didn’t know what I wanted.

I don’t confess to having it all figured out at this point. Far from it. But my dreams and ambitions of becoming a photographer are a lot more real, more grounded, than the ‘Devil Wears Prada’ story line I had running through my mind. I’m writing this more for myself than for anyone who may read this, because, I still have to convince myself that this is attainable. That sounds terrible, and I know it is, because if I don’t believe I can do it, surely no one else will. But, conquering this fear of failure, and all of the doubts and reasons why I can’t, are all apart of the process. Which is partly what this blog is for, documenting my process. My dreams of fluff were fun for awhile, but that’s definitely not how I want to present myself, or even see myself. I’d rather have a palpable, discernible goal that I can believe in.

“Believe in your own instincts, and sell your idea. If you don’t, who will?…All too often, we are the greatest obstacles to our own success. It’s easy to get stuck in a mindset that prevents us from taking a fresh look at our work…Practice expressing yourself in ways that will benefit you. If you deride your own work in front of others, they’ll do it, too. If you’re constantly self-deprecating, people will see you as uncertain of yourself. You have a lot of power to shape the public perception of yourself. Why not do it in a way that makes you look good?” (Basic Black, 51, 63-64).