Prepare For Takeoff!

     This entry requires a little bit of back story.

     My dad has a diverse educational background - he has three college degrees: Chemistry, Computer Maintenance, and another computer-y one ;) He's been a self-contracting computer programmer for as long as I can remember. Rewind to summer '10 and dad decided to look into trucking. The appeal was that it'd be a consistent job, and after you've trucked for a certain amount of time, you can always hop back into it (Dad would still do computer work on the side).

     I was volunteering my summer at camp when mom told me that dad was going to go to trucking school. I remember thinking my dad had lost his mind, and was probably just having a mid-life crisis. Now, a year and a half-ish later, I can see that it's been an amazing fit for him. He loves trucking, and, oddly enough, my mom loves getting out and riding along with him (for upwards of a month at a time even!). Seeing how everything has gone, I now think that trucking is pretty great :)

     How does this pertain to me you ask? Well, sometime tonight, I'll be setting off with dad for a 2-3 week trucking adventure – I know, I might just be a bit crazy to try this. ;)

     The idea to ride along came about in the Fall, and only now did everything line up for me to be able to actually go. I've got my camera batteries charged, audio books downloaded, and bags packed. I'm pretty excited :)

     I'll be riding and living in the semi with him, it will be great getting to see close up what goes into this trucking job! It looks like the first thing we'll be doing is heading to a suburb of Chicago to drop a load. After that, where you end up is dependent on where they give you a load to, but it could anywhere across America! - this can make packing the right type of clothing hard! ;)

     While I'm gone I'll be blogging, taking pictures, and sending post cards – so expect this blog to be a little more active in the near future :)

     If you have any trucking questions post a comment with them, and I'll try and get it answered! That way this can be a learning experience for myself, and anyone else who has ever wondered what being a trucker actually entails :)

     Prayers for traveling safety is much appreciated!

An Overdue Update

     I obviously have problems with procrastination - sorry for the radio silence. Here's a little update on my life for y'all:

      I'll start it off with a bit of a recap: Last May I wrapped up my four years of college. The whole semester was a really bittersweet time, and leaving campus “for good” was very hard. I didn't have much time to think on the change though, because shortly after graduating I was spending my summer working media at His Hill Ranch Camp. It really was an amazing summer that I could spend an entire blog entry talking about, but I wont – not now at least.

     Looking back, it should have been obvious to me that August was destined to be the month where reality would be slapping me in the face. Just back from camp, I was a car-less, jobless, living at home again college grad – not something I was super excited about.

     In need of money, I went back to basketball officiating, not something I love; but hey, it's income. I was still doing photography, though I didn't have a whole lot lined up. (Just an August and November wedding).

     Wanting to glean more photography knowledge, I got up the gumption to email a photographer I'd met at camp. That photographer's name is Donna Gustin. She sent her kids to The Hill for camp, saw photos I had taken, and gave some really sweet comments about them. This lead me to think that perhaps she'd be game for letting me shadow her a bit to get an idea of how professionals run things. I got really excited about the idea – it seemed things were shaping up! I was reminded that God never stops working in our lives, even when we may feel like things have hit a dead end. He alone could have planned for me to meet Donna there at camp, and have it lead to me learning from her. Little did I know how big of a blessing this connection would be to me!

     Fast forward to now, and I've been a paid second shooter at two weddings with her, and now am a paid post production assistant for her – the fancy way of saying, I edit pictures for her. It's been such a wonderful job fit. I've gotten the chance to learn – a lot – and have been able to work on my photo retouch abilities (not to mention getting to use some pretty awesome software!)

So yes, even in this uncomfortable time of leaving my “college years” behind me, God has been faithful in leading me to where He wants me next :)