There are two things you should know about me straight away:

1.  I love photography.  I have since I can remember.  I’ve had a plethora of cameras over the years starting when I was very young.  The idea that you could capture a moment in time and make it last forever was just too cool for words.  I started seeing things in my normal everyday life as pictures.  Even when I didn’t have a camera on hand, I would close my eyes and make a mental picture of the event or situation (“click”).  Because, at least for me, when you see things through the lens of your camera, it becomes a stronger memory.  And I crave and desire to hold onto every detail of those special memories.  So you can imagine how I take a bazillion pictures of things I want to remember.  As my childhood drifted away and I was faced with the reality of choosing a major for college, I can honestly say photography was not the first thing that I thought of.  Many people believe that you can never make a steady living with a college degree in the arts field and for some reason, I believed them.  Being practical and cautious even at the ripe old age of 18, I was thinking about a career in something that was a little more steady and constant.   I applied to 5 different colleges with 5 totally different majors.  Not the best strategy but I thought that where I decided to go would then also shape what career I would have.  I narrowed it down to two colleges with two different majors; mathematics vs. marine biology.  And I picked mathematics and quickly realized that “whoa, this is not a good fit.”  A month into college, I changed my major to human development.  Not for me.  Ok, then I tried child development.  I mean, who doesn’t love kids?  I adore them but eventually want my own rugrats and maybe that would be too much of a good thing.  Then, 2 1/2 years into college, I found Interior design and I was in love.  I continued my college education with that as my major which led me to Hawaii for school.  Eventually, 2 semesters before graduation, circumstances led me to have to transfer back to a school in CA.  And I was slapped in the face with the reality that most of my credits didn’t transfer to the CA State University system.  I was so close to graduating in Hawaii and now I was back at square one.  So I reevaluated everything.  Was my goal at becoming an Interior designer worth it?  Was that ultimately what I wanted to do and become?  Was that truly my dream career?  And what the heck was this nagging feeling that I should be doing something else.  Yet again.  I knew if I switched my major for the umpteenth time, people were going to think I was insane.  But I had to listen to my gut feeling and it was telling me that this was all happening for a reason.  Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be an interior designer.  Maybe I was meant to do something different.  So I bit the bullet and I changed my major yet again.  I decided to major in photography and I have never looked back.  I graduated with a BA in Photography after a long road of twist and turns but I have a degree in something I love.  Something that I am ridiculously passionate about.

2.  I love weddings.  Obsessively compulsively.  Like many girls, I dreamt of my wedding day from a very young age.  Weddings were often acted out by my baby dolls as a child and as I got older, it was Barbie and Ken’s turn.  As a teen, I was all about romantic comedy movies, especially the ones where there was any type of wedding.  I would dissect those scenes, making mental notes of what I liked and didn’t like.  And after 6 years with my wonderful guy, we got engaged.  It was my turn to be a bride, to marry the man of my dreams and have a wonderful wedding.  But it became about so much more than what invitations to choose or what type of flower bouquets to pick.  It was how important this day was for us. We were publicly declaring our love for each other and vowing to spend the rest of our lives with one another.  I let that be the guiding force behind all the planning.  When things would get stressful, I would just think about how spectacular this day would be even if everything didn’t go according to plan.  Don’t get me wrong, like any bride, I wanted everything to be perfect and go smoothly and I tried my best to have that happen.  And after a year of intense planning, our wedding day arrived.  Not everything went according to plan but the day was perfect nonetheless.  It flew by too fast as all weddings do but I can honestly say it was the most special day of my life.  The feeling of love was everywhere.  Love for each other, our families and friends and excitement for our new life together.  In all honesty, there are very few times in life where you are surrounded by everyone that means so much to you.  And I soaked it all in.  Afterwards, we had a wonderful honeymoon and it was nice to come home and not be consumed with all the details of planning a wedding that had overtaken my life for a whole year.  This lasted about two weeks.  Then I missed it like crazy.  I knew at this point that I was officially hooked on weddings.  Like I needed to go to some self help group… “Hi, my name is Kim and I’m addicted to weddings.”   Since I am definitely only getting married once in my life and I can’t force everyone I know to get married so that we will have weddings to go to, I knew my career needed to be in the wedding industry.  This is when those nagging feelings started happening again.  The answer had been staring me in the face all along.  Wedding photography!?!  It all was crystal clear.  This was it.  This is what I was destined to do.  My entire life thus far has led me to this career path.  I know this is finally where I belong.

My very first blog on my journey to become a real bona fide wedding photographer.  One more giant step towards being a total grownup.  There are levels to becoming a grown up that I think most people subconsciously know.  You graduate college, establish a career, get married, buy a house, get a dog (or a cat for all you feline lovers out there) and lastly, have kids.  Not every person does every step and I definitely did some of mine out of order but nonetheless, these are all major milestones on your road into adulthood.  In my opinion, once you have kids, you are officially an adult because someone has to be in charge.  I may just have to hold out on that last one for a few more years.

What a roller coaster of emotions these past few weeks have been.  Am I scared?  Out of my mind.  Stressed?  Of course!  Tired?  I literally fell asleep while starring at the computer screen the other day.  But really, it’s all part of the process and I would not trade in any of it because it’s showing me what I’m truly made of.  I know that with hard work, determination, faith and talent, I will make it.  Because really, failure is not an option.  Seriously.  I want this.  When I want something so badly, I do everything in my power not to fail.  Even in high school when I knew I was doomed by somehow getting placed in an honors physics class where everything made little to no sense and I couldn’t tell up from down, I still managed to pull out a passing grade.  That was an accomplishment, let me tell you.  I got a C+ but it felt like an A because I worked my butt off for it.  I may not remember a single thing that I learned in that class but it taught me to keep trying no matter how hard something may be.  It’s just something that my parents instilled in me growing up, to always do my best and never give up.

So that’s my plan…to always do my best and never give up.  Taking all that love and passion and turning my dreams into a reality, one day at a time.