The Evolution of My Future

Someone asked me the other day what I wanted to do with my life -- what exactly was my dream job?

Truth be told I've had too many to count on one hand. I've been blessed with so many opportunities that I really haven't had a solid idea of what it was exactly that I wanted to do.

In high school I wanted to be a famous mystery writer. I had a pen name, a life plan, and aspirations. I even self-published two novels. Everyone told me it wasn't "practical," that I needed a backup plan, like I was some sort of hard drive meant to save the world.

So when I first started college I started as an undeclared pre-med student. As I tell everyone that asks, it didn't last long. They probably wouldn't want a doctor that 2.5ed a chemistry class. Wouldn't really help them all that much.

So I switched my major and had the full intention of being a famous author in general. Back to the life plan. Which sort of fell apart when I realized that it still wasn't a very practical major -- especially since I didn't want to teach. Two years later and I'm still an English major, so I guess we'll see what happens with that. It's since been reduced to "be an author that can maybe finish a book and sell a copy every now and then," but the key is 'maybe finish a book.' Baby steps.

Freshman year I thought for a hot second that maybe I could eventually cut it as a professional ballroom dancer -- maybe as a dance teacher.

After switching my major I got a job as a photographer for a newspaper -- a job which, by so many miracles, I still have. Since then it's gone like this: Wedding photography? Portrait photography?

Last January it was combat photography, then it was sports photography, then hockey photography, back to combat photography, a brief contemplation of circus photography, always intermixed with "be some type of author that maybe finishes a book every fifteen years."

And now I'm back to wondering what the hell I'm going to do with my life. Can I actually finish a book? Could I maybe make it in some type of photography field? Or should I just enlist in the army and attempt combat photography?

Regardless of the constant change I've realized one thing in common with all of my supposed aspirations in life.

Something in my future has to involve story telling. Whether it be in novel form, short story form, poetry. The story of someone's wedding, of a milestone in someone's life. Story through dance and physical expression. The story of war and loss and tragedy, of a team sport, of success, the story of life and death.

Always some type of story.

So I'm not exactly positive what I'm going to end up doing in a year, five years, ten years down the road. I have no idea where the many paths I'm on are going to lead me. Judging by what I've seen and done thus far I know only that it will be different and exciting, and the only thing I can hope to do is one day tell a story that the world can see.