It dawned on me the other day that I have finally decided what I want to be when I grow up, and you may have guessed it ;-)  A photographer!!  Why is this interesting, or considered worthy of a blog post?  Well, I thought to myself "how did I go from being a strategic analyst at a major banking corporation to a photographer?"  But then it dawned on me, it's the other way around!!  As long as I can remember, I have always loved photos and taking pictures of people, places, things.  I think my first "real" camera was a 110mm that my parents bought for me while on a trip to Disney World when I was about 8 - I am pretty sure it was Minnie Mouse themed, and now I am on a mission to find that lovely piece of equipment that quite possibly started it all…  (But don't tell my mom, she will use that a reason for me to help clean out their attic - ha!!)

Since then, I can remember getting photos developed, always printing doubles so I could share with family and friends, and storing them in albums. A few years later, I got into scrapbooking and that got wild.  But I LOVED how the albums would turn out making each picture worthy of all the adornments on the page.  It was time consuming and extremely tedious and, after a while, I lost interest.  Partly because everything went digital so the process seemed to take even longer, and I would take months to get an album together.  I didn't stop putting albums together, I simply changed my method and now I create albums using sites like Picaboo.

So, back to the subject at hand…  In college, I changed majors quite a bit - I started off as Biochemistry / Molecular Biology (yea, not sure what I was thinking), then transferred to "Undecided" (or whatever the PC term was for it at that time) after going to Freshman orientation and realizing I was a very little fish in a VERY large pond surrounded by people with intelligence beyond my conception.  Needless to say, it was major defining moment for me at the age of 17, to say the least.  After a couple semesters, I settled into Mathematics - again, what was I thinking?  Well, math was always my "thing" and I thought I might as well major in a subject that I enjoy and could settle me into a career with the potential to make a decent living while "solving puzzles" all day.  Mmmhmmm - not so much.  Then, I was in Secondary Education / Mathematics because I needed a focus beyond math so I thought teaching would be the next best option, it only seemed natural.  All the classes I took that semester were depressing, with the teachers explaining to us the realities of being a teacher and that I will most likely end up in an inner city school making peanuts, trying to teach math to kids who don't care and that you're so burnt out by June, it's no wonder you have two months off.  You need it, but then you still dread going back in September.  It was eye-opening and I assume that was their way of weeding out the ones in the room that were born to be teachers.  I actually contemplated packing my bags altogether and becoming a hair dresser.  But that's a story for another blog post...

From then, I went along with my math classes and loved them (honestly) - I had one where the teacher spoke primarily in Russian, and never erased the chalkboard to start a new problem, he would simply start writing on the walls.  All the while, writing out the math theory for the Rubiks cube and commentating in Russian, then solving the Rubiks cube for the class.  Yea, mind was blown, but I was so intrigued.

As for photography, I wish I thought to take more classes geared towards the arts but to me, I was at college to gain an education in a field that I could earn a living in.  Honestly, I shutter as I type that - it's unfortunate I didn't realize that at the time and that I SHOULD pursue what I love because there is no reason I can't make a living doing what I love - I thought I could do it with math, why not Photography?  People do it every day.  I was in this mind set that arts were a hobby, and that was it.  Growing up, my mom would always enroll me in art classes over the summer and I loved them, I really enjoyed the art camps.  Some sort of art was always there for me, but never as a 100% focus so I guess that's what guided me in my college pursuits.  It's amazing to me what we need to come to this decision at such a young age - think about how different your course of study would be if you had to choose at the age of 27 versus 17.  Crazy, right?

By the time my four and half years wrapped up at Penn State, I graduated with a degree in Insurance and Mathematics and couldn't wait to get out and start my career.  I was all over the place in my college years but felt I had settled into a field of study I could use in the business world.  And I did - that's how I became a Strategic Analyst.  I did everything from assess delinquency risk, forecast new account volumes, run financial analyses, manage credit card campaigns for new and existing customers, and most recently, I manage credit line strategies.  All the while, starting my new business as a photographer.

What I really want to express is that part of my love for math has to do with the fact that it's a universal language - whether I was being taught in Russian or English, the work was solved the same way.  As for photography, it's a very similar draw for me - if doesn't matter where you're from, what language you speak, a photo can evoke feelings and spark memories and can bridge any cultural barrier.  It's another form of a universal language and it's no wonder the art always had a pull on me and now has brought me full circle...