2007, a wild year of change!

It’s New Year’s Eve. I’m in Northwest Arkansas. Not where I thought I would be, but glad to be here. I guess it is appropriate to end the year in the same place I started it. It was a year spent learning, mostly about myself. An incredible year of both highs and lows.

The year included a whole lot of drama in the relationship area (good and bad), writing, directing, shooting, and editing a complicated short film called “The Motive”, quitting the job at the place I worked for 7 years, accepting a challenging job in New Mexico, moving out of the apartment I lived in for 4 years and away from the city I lived in for 7 years, selling lots of stuff and moving across the country to a city where I knew no one, starting a new job, being submerged deeply into the photographic community and working with some of the best photographers in the world, meeting some friends that I hope to retain for life, lots more drama in the relationship area (good and bad), dealing with the death of somebody I was very close to, having my car engine blowup which put me upside down on the payments, leasing a very nice new car, returning that very nice leased car when I find out the car dealer lied to me, buying an awesome 4runner on ebay in Florida and having a two week cross country road trip to get back to Santa Fe, more drama in the relationship area, moving out of my apartment in New Mexico, traveling out of the country for the first time and spending 7 amazing weeks in Central Mexico, meeting and working with more amazing photographers, finding my style and becoming more passionate than ever about being a photographer, more relationship stuff (mostly good), coming back from Mexico and not being able to find a place to live, having a 6 month evaluation at my new job where it was decided that I didn’t fit in with their plans for the position and they didn’t want me anymore, finding that out on the day of the company Christmas party and then going to the party anyway, packing up a uhaul trailer with my stuff and then coming back to Northwest Arkansas for the holidays, releasing a book with my photography from Mexico, building and tweaking a brand new photography website, researching and building a business plan for my next career move, and deciding I have to sell my new 4runner in order to fund my new business.

That’s a lot of stuff for somebody to deal with all in the same year. But I learned a whole lot about who I am and what makes me happy. I used to be very materialistic and learned to cut ties with my stuff, I used to be fearful of instability and now I embrace the freedom it brings, I used to be concerned with other people’s expectations of me and now I’m mostly concerned with my own expectations. With the hardships of 2007 came a great philosophical makeover for the way I live. Some people would be depressed about being unemployed and homeless, but I’m as fired up as I’ve ever been to continue my journey. I’m not sure what the future brings, but I’m optimistic that 2008 will be filled with just as much adventure.

Also, you might have noticed a complete color change to www.deepdisch.net, I thought a change was appropriate due to all the changes I’ve been through and was a good way for deepdisch.net to celebrate the new year. For those longtime readers, I appreciate your continued patronage and even though you don’t leave comments, I know you’re there.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope 2008 is a wonderful year for you!