“So what do you do?”.  

“I’m a photographer, well I’ve just started my photography business….(big smile)”.  (Long pause).  “Photography huh? (They’re nodding).  “That’s a pretty competitive industry, maybe you should have something as a back up”. 

I understand, completely, really I do.  Usually I respond to their doubt in my decision, with kind reassurance and leave feeling scared and unsure.

I don’t really know what fate venturing into these waters will bring, but I know that if I spend a moment of time working on a plan B, I would have missed an opportunity to make my plan A happen.  There is of course huge appeal in a path that is paved with far more certainty, a pension and benefits, I get it.

I decided to be a photographer because I thought about myself 35 years from now, and thought about what that person would want me to do now.  I kept hearing her say, “take a chance, who cares”, I imagined that when you’re that stage in your life you’re braver…and sassier, well at least I hope I am.

I think J.K. Rowling said it best.  “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all-in which case you fail by default.” 

I do my best to put those doubting comments out of my mind and wake up every morning in the hopes of making my older self proud.  I’m pretty sure that when I’m older, her opinion is all that will matter.

I was going to insert a photo I had taken here, but I had seen this picture on Instagram with the caption “Destined to be an old woman with no regrets”, and couldn’t resist.

Happy Monday!

Farida