Growing Up

I am graduating in May of next year, so you can probably guess what question has been running through my mind lately.

What will I do post grad???

Well...this question has led me to a deeper question..as always.

What do I want to achieve in order to die knowing that I led a fulfilling life?

I am not going to attempt to answer this question today or even tomorrow or even 10 years from now. But I do want to begin discovering what the answer could be.

We had a working photographer come visit our Studio Photo class last night. He showed us his work from the past ten years. All the students, including me, just sat back and judged his photography based on what we believe is successful. We all had our opinions, some nice, and some not so nice. All this to say that it really doesn't matter what we think about each other. Our worth as photographers and HUMAN BEINGS is not defined by other people's judgements. We can't live our lives trying to prove to others that our life's work was "worth it". We will die before we feel fulfilled. I was reminded of a quote by Judy Garland, "Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

As cheesy as it is, it's true. I want to figure out what my life as STEPHANIE YU is supposed to look like, not what he thinks, or she thinks, or what they think I should look like to be "successful".

So here goes the journey. I am officially 21 and still growing!