I get extremely nostalgic thinking back on my journey to where I am now. It’s been what? 8
years since I first touched a camera? Maybe even longer. In those 8 years my camera has
taken me places I could’ve never imagined, let me meet people who I consider my best friends
now; people who have been fundamental in building the foundation to who I am now, and who I
am becoming. I don’t have a destination with any of this. Yeah, I have goals and benchmarks I
want to hit, but the possibilities of what I can do, and what I will do... are infinite. If I give myself
a destination, then what happens when I get there? That’s a question I don’t ever want to have
to answer. I’m an artist - I live to create.
There’s two key mottos or principles I’ve sort of based my attitude towards life on:
● “It’s all about the process”
● “Never peak, always improve.”
The first one got ingrained into me at a young age while I was wrestling. For those of you that
don’t know, wrestling SUCKS! It’s really hard and the tangible rewards at the end of it are, well...
nothing. I wrestled from the age of 4 all the way until I was 20 years old, when I stopped in
college. I got really good at wrestling throughout the years though, and that’s because I loved
the process of getting better. I loved the late nights of training with my brother, with the single
flickering light on in the corner of the room. I loved showing up to class in the morning smelling
like chlorine, because we had 5am swim conditioning beforehand. I loved the bus rides. I loved
it all. Ask me if I loved it then, and I would have probably told you, “This shit sucks. I’m hungry
and I want to go home.” But inside, I knew I loved it all. Who it made me. The qualities and skills
it developed that I’ve carried with me my whole life. It was all so important to who I am now and
in allowing me to have a perspective on life that will help me to flourish and do what I love
The second motto goes in hand with this wrestling analogy I’ve got going on here. Winning the
state tournament was everyone's goal and it was always preached, “you want to be at your best
for this tournament, this for all the marbles! Let’s make sure we peak for this tournament.” I
didn’t really like the concept of that at all. In my head, after State was nationals, then after that
was college. If I peak now, I’ll never get to the level I want to be at. So “Never peak, always
improve” has flowed through my head every day and it has been applicable in every facet of my
life since then. It’s easier to understand if you view it as a graph. No, it won’t be linear all the
way up. There will be ups and downs along the way - that’s life! But if you peak, that’s the top.
There’s no getting better after that. So I don’t plan on ever peaking. I want to improve at my craft
I have big dreams with all of this and I’m so extremely thankful to everyone that has helped
me and trusted me along my journey so far. There’s plenty more to come and a long path ahead