Unable to sleep, I was up at 5:30 this morning. Not for any particular reason, as I always wake around that time. Despite it being Saturday, I am going on vacation soon, and have a final paper due for school so getting up seemed the practical thing to do. Fresh with modest enthusiasm, I fired up the computer while writing a journal entry. That effort was somewhat thwarted when the “blue screen of death” suddenly appeared. Panic. Stop. Restart. Safe Mode. Restart again. Whew, all appears well for the time being. In an uncharacteristic drive for order, last weekend I was inspired to clean up and hyper-organize my Chrome bookmarks – clearly I was under the influence of something! So when I logged on today, I hit the first dropdown and noticed my brother’s blog, More 2 Explore, which I had not visited in a while and decided to take a look. It looked different than I had last remembered, clean, modern, and very inviting.
This of course led me to think about my own blog, and how I couldn’t remember when I last posted an entry. In total ADD fashion, I finally made time to visit and revitalize my long-neglected corner of the ether. And what would be the point of that if I didn’t write a new post. I have no idea how many previous followers became bored to death at seeing nothing new, and decided to move on to greener pastures. It would be well-deserved. Three plus years is a long time to wait. Yet here we are, reconnecting after time apart.
At this point you may be wondering what I have been up to over the previous three years. Or you don’t really care and I am just going to tell you anyway. When last I wrote, I was at what I now realize was the end of my previous career as a paralegal. I reached the highest level I could go without enrolling in law school. Towards the end is when I picked up a camera and, like most newbies, thought I could make a living from it. Although I love photography, and writing for that matter, the reality was it did not appear it was going to pay the bills any time soon. Although I continued to learn and hone me craft, a bill-paying-career-change was necessary.
When an opportunity to embark on a new role in occupational safety presented itself, I leaped. Although I love what I do now, and have learned a tremendous amount, this field occupies a great deal of my time. The down side has been the challenge of finding time to pursue my creative passion while learning my new job. As if that were not enough, last fall I was inspired by my new boss to enroll in undergraduate school and finish my bachelor’s degree. Between work and school there is even less time to attend to basic needs such as remembering to each lunch, much less engage in creative pursuits. I miss them, very much in fact. They are as integral to who I am, as oxygen is to life. They satiate the struggle between the well-matched opponents in my head – the left and right brain.
This brings me back to the beginning when I mentioned I had been journaling when the computer issue arose. This is a practice I have been trying to maintain on a regular basis with mixed results due to the aforementioned commitments. The proverbial burning urge to incorporate a creative outlet into my daily routine has remained all along, so continuing with my photography and writing is an unending imperative. I have no designed to create “the great American novel,” I just crave the sheer satisfaction of releasing the thoughts and stream of consciousness pent up in my head, before they are forever lost to senior moments. If the written words don’t flow, at the very least I will try to post my photography – which I hope has improved somewhat since I started this blog. So, with this renewed commitment to engaging in more creative activities, visa vie photography and blogging, I hope to reconnect with the masses and share my little corner of cyber space with anyone foolish or bored enough to listen.
Thank you for taking the time to make it this far, when time is at such a premium.
Mary Angelini Photography 