This may not necessarily have anything to do with photography and motherhood, but I thought I would share something big that is happening in the life of M.M.Hewitt. It's something that signifies the next step in adulthood for me and my husband: home ownership. We're in our thirties and only just two years ago managed to land a "grown up" job. We were close to our thirties before we managed to finally have a kid. Most people our age are on their third child, have been established in their career for five years and possibly even already in their first home. We seem to come up late on the life milestones.
But there is something that can be said for all of this. What matters most is that my husband and I never gave up on the goals and dreams that we had for our life. We knew what we wanted and when we didn't get it right when we had hoped we continued on. Yes, we hemmed and hawed and complained our fair share, but we didn't let it road block us. We had our first child after four years of trying due to PCOS, we got a grown up job after six years of marriage and three years after graduating college because of bad timing, and now after nearly eight years living in apartments we can finally be the proud owners of a split level home because we are finally financially able to support that lifestyle.
I've always known what I wanted to do with my photography. But for a few years I let the desire to make money more than create images that spoke to me overpower my reason for clicking the shutter. For years I worked myself trying to book clients for family portraits and this, that and the other, and I made myself incredibly unhappy in the process. I was reminded just a year ago about why I wanted to be a photographer in the first place and now I'm happier than ever. I'm thirty years old and I'm only now starting to really get my foot in the door as far as creating art and sharing it with others goes. I road blocked myself when I thought money was more important than staying true to my creative desires. So now there are many artists out there who have a ten year head start on me, but it's only my fault. I have a lot of work to do in order to make up for lost time but there's no reason why I can't achieve my artistic goals. I may be late, like all the rest of my life milestones, but that doesn't mean they won't happen.
There are many reasons we can give ourselves for not achieving what we want; children, finances, health, timing not being right. None of them have to be road blocks. They may be standing in our way, but there are no barriers to our sides! We can always walk around them. And in the moments where there really is no way around if you keep pushing against them, keep working through them those road blocks will budge and you can continue on.
Oh, hey, look at that! I made it about photography after all!