Ahh the agony of taking 7 hours over one summer term rather than tanning at the pool makes your reflect on why why why. I'm almost done though. Another semester and I'm DONE! The siblings and I plan on taking a vacay to Vegas as a graduation gift for me. I'm probably one of the few that doesn't have the time and money to go on vacations. The places that I've been to I can count with one hand and still have a couple fingers to count.

Well this entry isn't really about summer school being over. It's more about the hardships of figuring out why the hell you're put onto this world to do. I've been through it and lately it seems like a lot of my close friends are experiencing it. I've been through 3 majors to finally realizing what I want to do in life. And guess what, you don't need a degree to do it. It's hard when you think you've wasted all this time and money for you to realize your passion. But even for some it takes more than that. When its your time, it's your time buddy. Luckily, it's really never too late to do anything. I think the hardest part of the ordeal is dealing with it. Yeah you spent all this time and money but you're going to have to pick yourself up and move on. This actually reminds of a speech I presenting at my high school graduation. I graduated salutatorian and I'm pretty sure no one would have ever thought I'd do photography. LOL.

I remember my friend that sat behind me in chemistry class in high school. I asked her what she was going to do with her life. Her answer: photography, I want to do photography. I gave her a weird look, ironically. =( I thought to myself why would anyone do photography for the rest of their life. Is that even a lifestyle? At that time I wanted to be a stock analyst. WTF is right. ahha I was just trying to make myself look cool but that was one of my majors when I got into college. I went from being a finance major to pre-med to pre-opt. That equals to about 6 1/2 years of college.

But that's not to say how surprised my friend was when I told her 4 years later that I wanted to do wedding photography for the rest of most my life. She was like "uh huh". lOL. My point is you never know what the heezy life is going to throw at you. And it's freaken when you least expect it. You succeed and then you fail. The more you 'fail' at something the sweeter your success will be. Hey I'm not telling you to fail, God forbid. I'm just telling you that the sun still shines at the end of the storm. That IT IS going to be okay. I quoted an Aaliyah lyric from one of her songs during my graduation speech. The infamous "And if at first you don't succeed, then dust yourself off and try again." That statement doesn't really hit you until it's happened to you. Nevertheless, I did get a standing ovation for it.

LIke they say, when life gives you lemons you make sweet sweet lemonade baby! And seriously lets be honest, there's so much more worse things that can happen to you. You're still breathing aren't ya? =)

-much love and God bless, Diem

I realized that my last post was over a month ago and a lot has happened since then. I finally got into a relationship. Took a road trip with my 2 of my best buddies to Biloxi and Panama City. I updated my website with photos I neglected to post here. And probably the most exciting is I finally told my parents about my plans in life.

I told my siblings and close friends that I'll talk to my parents about my careers when I go back to Biloxi to visit them but had no idea it would happen the way that it did. My plan was to sit them down, after a couple of beers of course, and tell them the potential success as a wedding/portrait photographer. You guys don't know how much weight of guilt I was carrying until that day. Before this my parents knew how much I loved photography and noticed the number of photo sessions that I was doing. The 2 weeks that I was down in Biloxi, I managed to book 3 photo sessions!
Then a couple days later my dad asked me,

Dad: "So is this what you want to do?"

Me: "Well it's a side thing that really helps me get by with my finances."

Dad: "I don't care what you do as long as it isn't illegal. What about optometry school?"

Me: "I'm still going to school. But you know, photography offers a big potential for me."

Dad: "I don't care what you do. Do something you're good at and wealth will come to you. If you can't get into optometry school than do photography. I've seen your photos. I want you to be successful at whatever you do and to be able to be a good person and to raise a family. That's all I ever wanted for you guys."

And that's how it all went down. A BIG breathe of relief. To be honest, I don't need to graduate if I truly didn't want to. But I've been far in my college life and have a couple classes left so why not. I have no regrets on how long it took me to find my passion in life. There are people that take many years to finally realize what they are in this world to do. And I was one of them.

I promised you guys new photos but to be honest I just wasn't in the mood to. Apologies. So I'll make it up to you readers and do a massive photo update. =) These are old photos to the ones that have been to my website recently. Oh and before I forget if you guys have a Facebook account add me @ my facebook.

These photos were from different sessions. If you want to see the full session visit my website @ Diemphotographer

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And a few from a very SMALL wedding. =)

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Cheerios,

-Diem