Persistent Vision

Sticking With It - A Reaffirmation

Thirteen days ago, I sat in a coffehouse in Austin, and typed out the inaugural post of this blog.

But it was more than just an introduction - it was my personal manifesto. In that manifesto, I promised to share content with the world on at least a bi-weekly basis, to get out there and be creating and sharing my persistent vision. 

Yet, essentially two weeks have passed, and that manifesto is still the only post on this blog. 

What happened?!?!?

I will answer that question, and to help explain, I’ll use some photos that capture my emotions.

This is my professional blog, and I don’t usually like to talk about my personal life in a professional forum. But, at this moment, it’s very pertinent.

Let me be completely candid: my life has been a very scary and uncertain place for me lately… 

THIS IS WHAT MY LIFE FEELS LIKE RIGHT NOW. 

Two months ago, after just shy of 22 years, I left behind everything and everyone I’ve ever known in my home state of Colorado.

I moved one thousand miles away, to a place I’d never been, knowing only a scant handful of people, and having no employment in place. 

I had an extremely awesome job offer in my career field that was extremely promising as the new year began in another city

in Texas, but that offer has been put into indefinite limbo, and I honestly don’t know whether I am still being seriously considered for it or not.

And so I have been forced to look for work once more in Austin. 

My bank account is only getting emptier by the day.  

I am applying everywhere, for everything and anything that I can. I’ll flip burgers if I have to. 

I am dealing with a long term personal illness that I am having to try and figure out long term care for. 

I am going to have to move out of the place I have been staying at since I came to Austin and find somewhere else to stay until I can get employed and financially stable enough to get a place of my own. 

Amidst all of this personal turmoil, my creativity and my passion has been shoved to the furthest backburner on my personal stove of priorities. 

THIS FITS THE METAPHOR, YES? 

I have come to the disheartening realization that I have been in Austin almost two months, and I have only broken my cameras out a few times since moving here.

Worse yet, I’ve realized that I haven’t really created very much in the last YEAR.

I’ve been scared into a sort of creative submission by my ongoing unstable living/financial/health situation. This cannot and will not stand.

Yes, I still need to find a day job to pay the bills, and I need to find a more permanent place to stay, both in pretty damn short order.

But I sure as hell didn’t come to Austin to sit around and let my cameras gather dust - I’ve got to get out there, find stories, take pictures and videos, gather audio, create multimedia, and aggressively grow myself, my portfolio and my business.

This town is brimming with stories, with characters, and with opportunity. I came here because I recognized the tremendous gold mine potential Austin has. 

…and so I’m going to take a chance.

I might have to put my stuff in storage and float from friend’s couch to friend’s couch for a while. Hell, I might even sleep in my car for a few nights. 

But I have made a commitment. And I will not turn my back on it. 

I am willing to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve my goals.

And I hope that, as I push forward in these endeavors, as I share my visions, that I will gain a following, and that people will believe in me and what I’m doing, and that in time, the money will come.   

To paraphrase the inspirational rock ballad by Poison, one of my personal favorite bands:

 ’I will be someone, look what I’ve done, I am a shooting star!”

It’s shootin’ time. Game on.  

A Persistent Vision - Birth of A Visual Journal

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