So, I think I said this last year, but I feel like I have changed so much over the last year. I lot of that this year, is how hard the school year was, and that the long time friends I have had suddenly all disappeared. Suddenly, it was just me and I had to figure out my direction and start over.
This last semester of school, especially, kicked my butt. I took six classes and really bit off more than I could chew, but I learned so much and I really feel like my photography is taking off. (Even though one of my teacher's gave me an A-) At the beginning of the year, I was begging everyone and anyone to come and let me take pictures of them, now I have people begging me to take their pictures and I don't have enough time to get to them all! I took those two workshops from Jake Garn and Keith Bryce, and after all of the really hard feedback from all of my teachers, and talking with the working professionals in the area like Grant Headen, I really feel like I am coming into my own. For the summer, in order to keep up my skills, I found a make-up artist and a hair stylist that I wanted to work with and started doing various fairy tales. I have been posting the pictures from that earlier. They are so much fun, but also a lot of work. I pick the models, find a time that works for all four of us, scout out the locations and usually find the wardrobe. On one shoot I even picked all the styling and made Liz get hair extensions and dye her hair! One of my teachers also just wrote to me and said that they are looking for lab aids for the next coming school year and she thinks that I would be perfect, so I am thinking about applying for that. I also got a scholarship to go to school next year, so they are paying my tuition. I had to write an essay telling them why I needed it, get two letters of recommendation from teachers, fill out FAFSA and print out my transcripts, which got me the interview with a board of teachers in the Visual Art and Design Department and show them my portfolio and answer questions. I was so nervous, but I got it! I should be done with school within the year. :)
A couple other big changes for me this year are that I moved back in with my mom for a while and I have been doing a bunch of tests to see if I will be able to give Wesley a kidney. Ever since Wesley got sick, I have had a feeling that I would be the one to give him a kidney. It was just something that I knew to be true. I don't know how other to explain it than that. Now it is coming up for real, and I'm scared, but I expected it to happen so I am okay with it. Really, I am just ready for it to be over with. I bet Wesley knows the feeling. Let's just do it already!
Not nearly as important, but something that I have been working on, did I mention that I have lost 27 pounds this year?!? :) I now also have a personal trainer, named Preston, that kicks my butt. I am so sore all of the time! I feel like it is helping though.
Things are definitely changing. I'm changing. And I feel like unless you are one of the people there to help me along the way, you are missing out on who I am becoming. I feel like I don't forgive people as easily for letting me down, and I don't let people walk all over me as much. I feel like I am becoming an adult, with a sure direction that I am headed in, and leaving behind all of the high school drama. Everything that seemed so important at the time doesn't matter at all now...
There is my brief summary of being 22, now let's see what 23 has to offer.
