Progress

I had an interesting writing assignment the other day that ended up being an observation of how I perceive my own progress. I think it's so easy for me to only focus on the things that I don't know (that I want to know) and completely disregard and ignore everything I've learned. I also have a really skewed sense of time. Not hour to hour, but long term. A few months ago I had just started my computer art class and was barely learning to use photoshop; a year ago I was just hearing the words "aperture", "ISO", and "shutter speed" for the first time.

And since then, I've learned so much, including how to code this little page you're reading right now! A few months I won a contest with a design I made in Illustrator ---- 700+ people will be wore my art on their t-shirts at Relay For Life! A few months ago, I literally didn't have a clue how to use Illustrator. And six months from now, I'm going to look at my first roll of film that I just shot this week and smile. Because (I'm hoping, hahaha) you'll be able to see the progress. 

I'm just saying, it's healthy to remember to give yourself a high five sometimes. You're doing great. Just start where you are. That's one of the reasons I love keeping this little blog of mine. Go to the top right photo in the navigation bar and click that archive link. Seriously. (ugh the HTML code randomly stops working sometimes, so forgive me if it doesn't work...) And scroll down to those oldest posts. There's a reason they're still there. Progress. It's so important to recognize. Some [most] of that stuff seems laughable now, but I think it's a good marker of how far I've come. And who knows ---- the stuff I'm posting now might seem laughable in a few months. It probably will be. But I'll still be proud of it. The journey is just as important as your destination. Enjoy it. Embrace it. Love that evolution. Too often I think there's such a facade that hides the learning curve for whatever reason. Maybe people think it's embarrassing? Well, I'm not going to hide it. There's still so much that I don't know ---- there's so much that I've got no clue about. But just as importantly, there is so much I have learned so far. And that is so essential to remember.

PS, this: