A little crazy this popped up on my dash this week.

I was actually thinking about how life changing (you know, just one of the life changing things that happened in 2011), quitting my job was.

Everything that happened last year was an insane wake up call.

From Mike and I breaking up, to the most important person in my life dying of cancer, to quitting my job of 5+ years, to going to Europe alone, and eventually leading up to this time last year…

I was riding out the last three weeks at Hot Topic, and when I quit, I had no game plan. I decided to just start writing bands/managers asking for photo passes.

I reached out to 5 magazines, only Substream and two.one.five responded.

I wrote The Airborne Toxic Event, Manchester Orchestra, The Devil Wears Prada, Hot Rod Circuit, and Hit The Lights, from about the end of October until beginning of January, and the only band I shot was The Airborne Toxic Event in November and Hit The Lights in January.

This does not include the countless Craigslist ad responses.

By the time March rolled round, I had completed a portrait session for a friend, been looking for jobs in Raleigh, sent some more band e-mails, which I had never heard back from and then I reached out to AMP Magazine. Ironically, my first assignment with AMP Magazine, was an interview with lead singer Rody from Protest The Hero which actually appeared in their other magazine, Hails and Horns (June ‘12) with my picture being the full page that the interview appears on.

In April, I returned to Philly for the weekend to catch The Wonder Years, as I was walking to the venue, my phone had alerted me of a VM, which was asking me to come and shoot the show I was three blocks from. I returned the call, not only would I be paid, but I would also get to shoot two of my favorite bands.

In May, I shot Raleighpalooza (aside from locals, I shot We Are The In Crowd, Sparks The Rescue, The Early November, Every Avenue, and a bunch of others).

By June, I was on tour with a local band, documenting every part of the tour and I had also shot my first full wedding on my own.

July was Warped Tour for AMP Magazine. Where I spent all day interviewing bands, which was completely mindboggling to me. But a lot of fun, and exhausting.

August and September were more weddings. Amanda Palmer was also in September, where a photo gallery appeared on AMP Magazine’s front page.

All of this literally leads up to this moment right now. The photo of Kellin Quinn I took from Warped Tour, which I have sold several times on Etsy, is the one that will appear in the next issue of ALTERNATIVE PRESS.

That same photo I entered into the AP Tour contest, and WON. I will be shooting the AP Tour in Philly on behalf of Alternative Press this coming Friday!

That’s INSANE to me.

To bring this full circle (because that’s my favorite thing in the entire world to do)…

“do whatever it takes to, get where you need to be”

Is pretty much the philosophy, if you can even call it that, that I’ve been holding on to for the last few weeks/months.

It’s not just waking up, it’s fighting, it’s moving forward.

It’s fighting to move forward. And that’s okay, as long as we keep moving forward.

(Source: journalinspiration)