At the age of 15 I failed a year of school, I failed grade 9! While all my mates went on I had to repeat a year!
When I look back now I realise what that taught me but damn, at the time it felt shit. My "mates" laughed at me and the overwhelming feeling of disappointment from both myself and my parents was real. I realised in that moment I had to make a change, I had to have a plan moving forward. To be totally honest in that moment all I cared about was moving schools haha I mean at the age of 15 all you cared about was your image and the weekend. I changed schools, managed to pass grade 9 haha but I carried on scraping by right up until just before my matric year. I realised I had no direction in life, what now, where am I going, what am I doing with my life. If I carry on down this dark road scraping by, hanging out with toxic people, I'm just going to become exactly that.
To fast forward a bit, I was literally at a mates house and he had the latest Apple IMac, the one that looked like an old school tv, this slide show of breathtaking images rolls across the screen and it was that moment that changed my life, those epic mind boggling images set in motion something that would align me with the person I was about to become.
This overwhelming feeling of purpose took over, I was obsessed with photography, didn't own a camera of any sort but obsessed. Just like that I had a plan, something to work towards, direction. I was no angel growing up, im sure my parents will agree with that haha but nevertheless I sat them down and told them I was going to become a photographer. To cut a very long story short they lent me R3000 to buy a camera, camera gear back then was nowhere near the price it is today but we made it work, a week later I had my first camera and the camera that would shape my future. Now what, I had the gear and no idea, spent the next few days reading the manual, think I read it twice and my images looked nothing like those IMac screen savers, I wanted more, more locations, more subjects to shoot. I took my camera everywhere, shot everything and everyone and that's how I learnt, trial and error. Reading, watching and learning, soaking everything up. To really take ownership over your future and have a direction in life is the best feeling ever.
I spent the next few months reading, watching and shooting everything I can and im still doing that to this day. It's been a hell of a journey thus far and im super excited for the future, it only gets better!
"The person you will be in 5 years is based on the books you read and the people you hang around with today" - This is very true but it also applies to everything else as well, yes the people you hang around with but more so the people you listen to, the opinions you believe or the videos you watch. All the information you take in, positive or negative, will affect your future. What you feed your mind will shape your future.
I created the future that was in my dreams and im still working on it to this day, it's always evolving. It's really not about how good you are now, it's more about how good you're going to be in the future as you grow, have vision. What I have learnt over the years is as an individual working for yourself you are going to be faced with hard choices, choices that will take you ten steps forward or destroy everything you have built up. Success will not happen if you are wanting to take shortcuts and cut corners, there is no easy way, just hard work and consistency!
Everybody to some degree has a goal and dreams you aspire to but what's your plan???
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