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This month Matthew and I are celebrating thirteen years together. We started dating in 2008 shortly after I started college in Cazenovia, New York. I didn’t plan to date in college, in fact, my plans included waiting until after college to date because I wanted to focus on my studies (and I was waiting for the boys my age to mature). Less than two weeks in I was introduced to Matthew and the rest is history.
I thought for sure that we wouldn’t last long, especially because I was only eighteen and he was twenty. As much I preferred committed long term relationships, at that age it didn’t seem like something possible. A few years later after studying abroad the first semester of my junior year, I knew I had to make some big decisions. I was going to school to becoming a photojournalist, but after being gone a little over three months I knew that a healthy relationship couldn’t be sustained if I were out on assignment at least six months of the year. I didn’t want to throw away my career and goals just for a boy, but at the young age of twenty, I knew that I didn’t have to. I weighed my options and decided that evolving my career was the best option for me.
As much as I didn’t want to destroy my career potential over a guy, I also didn’t want to lose out on real love just to keep a job. Instead, we evolved together. I found a passion for wedding photography (“positive photojournalism,” as I like to call it) and within the past few years fell in love with blogging. It is the best of my photography and journalism work together. I get to share my photography and write too. Back then I never knew that a job like this was available or even attainable for me.
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The last several years we put our energy together to help Matthew achieve his goals of finishing college and he graduated this spring with a degree in electrical engineering. One month later he achieved his dream job working as an electrical engineer with renewable energy. It’s not exactly perfect, no job really is, but it is the path he has wanted for so long. I am so proud.
With all the moved and changes and this awful pandemic, my wedding photography business hasn’t made it completely full time, but I have high hopes for next year now that I am booking weddings again. And I am gaining confidence to work on my blog. Now that Matthew is where he needs to be, we are focusing on growing my dreams.
So no, I didn’t lose anything choosing love over my past career goals. We took another path together. And on the old path I never would have known that all of this is possible. I didn’t get to where I wanted to go fast, but I got to where I needed to be. And the best part is that we did it while supporting one another. Life is difficult and love can be too. Together we have faced so many changes, so many moves, incredible adventures, and heartbreaking life events. We have built a foundation that can hold the both of us up. And I am so proud of that.
Along the way Matthew has also nourished his creative side and has become passionate about drone and landscape photography. He is helping me build my blog up and he supports my goals and aspirations. His Instagram is called @WorldsOfDiscovery and I feel that it is the perfect creative name for a man who has shown me what is possible. This is a great big world. And sticking to one plan without flexibility or room for opportunity, could lead to missing out on a whole lot of it.
