Photography

About 6 months ago I embarked on a journey, a journey into trying to live out my, super secret, dream to be a photographer.  Wow that sounded really cheesy.  But seriously I have desired to be a part of seeing peoples lives played out in photographs.  Over the last 6 months I have spent time practicing and practicing. I took some classes in high school but needless to say I'm pretty sure that I failed.  I gave myself 6 months to pursue seeing if I have what it takes to pursue it as a side career.  And if I suck at least I tried.  I have taken far too many pictures of my niece, nephew, and little cousins.  I'm sure that they are all extremely annoyed by now.  I've attended different workshops, classes, and spent way to many nights trying to understand the exposure triangle.  I have always prided myself on being a hustler and doing what it takes to get a job done.  But the reality is I'm a quitter, whenever a situation gets hard I usually walk away.  I am notorious for quitting things half way through, and changing my mind. For example I have several unfinished scrapbooks, some dating back to high school and I have changed my major 5 times.  The crazy thing is with photography I've pushed myself past tears, and past insecurities.  Instead of quitting whenever things have got hard for me to understand, I just take a mental break and get back on my grind.  So I've officially made it through my 6 months, and lucky for me I actually have a little bit of talent.  Now this doesn't mean that I no longer want to pursue school or working in ministry, it just means that I also want to do photography.  I don't know where photography will fit with my super busy life but I do know that God will find a way for me to fit it in to my calling.  

Re-Tweaking

  This past week, we had camp for YFC an organization that I work for, that works with kids in OKC public schools.  The theme of the week was about vision.  We pushed the kids into defining their goals, core values, and purposes in life. And also having them to write down concrete ways to reach these goals.  As well as having them acknowledge their dream killers, and other ways that they don't meet their goals.  From there provided them with ways that they can avoid not meeting their goals. All stemming from the saying all people end up some where but few people end up somewhere on purpose.  This made me pull out my Chazown notes from years ago.  And see where I was sitting at in those goals I set, and the vision that I defined for my life.  

  Going through my notes, I felt extremely discouraged because the majority of the goals I have yet to come anywhere close to meeting.  And a good portion of them I am either in the same spot I was before or even further behind.  And there are so many more goals to be added to the list.  I have always prided myself on doing a good job to achieve the goals I set, and looking over my list was a big kick to my teeth.  So the last couple of days or so I have been evaluating where exactly I went wrong in following my goals, and looking over all the notes I took from camp.  And a couple of things immediately to mind, I stopped meeting continuously with a mentor & a small group, which both are essential to spiritual growth.  I stopped visiting my goals on a daily basis, and I some how stopped consulting God on every decision that I make.  Most importantly I lost track of the plans that God gave me, and started following after my own desires. 

  With all of this being said I have a new attitude on my vision, I actually spent some time reworking and re-tweaking it to fit the JoAnna I am now, and the direction that God has me going in. I posted my vision on my wall(I almost passed out from the Expo fumes) so every morning when I rollover the first thing that I look at is this vision. I have also printed copies of my goals to be all around my house and on my desk at work.  That way I will have the constant reminder of what God has called me to do.  

I'm Brand New

New style, new name, and new vision for the blog.  The times I have kept up with the blog it has generally been a form of a journal or spilling my thoughts in no particular order. Now I want to go in the direction of sharing my passions, desires, and living out my vision.  Mainly to keep accountability with helping me to continue towards following through with my goals, and living out God's plan for my life.  Who better to keep you accountable then the world wide web. Right? Any who, I plan to daily share my passion for photography, working with inner city kids, missions, cooking, event planning, and most importantly the love I have for my Savior.  With all of this being sad, I will leave you with a verse I have clung on to for years:

For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.-Jeremiah 29:11