2018: Moving Forward

Well, I think many people would say THANK GOD 2017 IS OVER!  I can't say I'm among those people, but for purely selfish reasons.  Overall, I had a pretty darn good year.  I've been a lot of places and seen a lot of things, but I think I have narrowed my year down to 5 favorite highlights:

1.    Getting Engaged, of course!!!

2.    Chicago

3.    Getting my first car

4.    Mackinaw City photography trip

5.    Beating my personal best GPA

Kind of a weird list, I know, but that's that.  Moving forward.  

I have a lot of plans for 2018.  I mean I have 18.5 months to finish planning my wedding, graduate from Michigan State, and travel a little more of the US.  (Tuck and I already have another photography trip in the works for October so stay tuned)  12 of those 18.5 months are staring me in the face.  Pretty sure I'm supposed to be excited, but to be honest from my view 2018 looks a little like Darth Vader.  Intimidating because let's be real, the imperial march is definitely playing in the background and he's probably going to kill me.  Confusing because wait a minute you're supposed to be dead?  (Don't yell at me the movie came out in freaking 1983 you had time to watch it) Exciting because HOLY CRAP it's Darth Vader this is totally awesome! 

Despite the horribly nerdy Star Wars analogy, I do have high hopes for this upcoming year and I thought I would share some of my thoughts with you.  

I said this on Instagram but for those who (sadly) don't follow me, I'll say this again: last year, I started getting serious about photography.  As a result, I've started looking at the world differently.  Some may see grass or rocks or rusty metal train tracks, but I see an artistic opportunity.  Get down in the grass and get a close-up of the veins running through the blades.  Zoom in on that rock and pull out the colors of its sediments.  Take a picture of those abandoned tracks and make people feel abandoned when they look at it.  

Because I now see the world around me as this beautiful place, I want to take that beauty that I see and try to bring it inside of myself.  This will mostly be through positive thinking.  I have a temper and tend to be cynical of most things. I want to try and turn some of that negative energy into positive energy.  (Hey at the very least it'll lower my blood pressure, amiright?)  I want to create a space that promotes positivity through organization and aesthetic.  (I'm an artist, people, I want things to be beautiful)  I'm so excited to start working on this endeavor.  And I've been blessed with an excruciatingly painful optimist in the form of my fiancé, so hopefully this is a resolution I'll actually stick to.  

There are stressful days coming, and I can't wait to write all about my adventures.  We'll be kicking off this New Year with a road-trip to South Carolina.  My sister's friend is graduating from the US Marine Corp bootcamp in a couple weeks, so Tuck and I are taking her (and ourselves and our cameras and a couple of unwitting stuffed otters) to see him graduate.  Apparently it's quite the affair and I personally cannot wait to see it.  I'm sure I'll have lots to write about, since road travel is infinitely more interesting than air travel.  Hopefully I remember to keep a log of all our adventures.  But as always, follow me on Instagram @jadefire_violin to see up-to-date pictures from the trip.  I hope the weather clears off before we get there so you get more than iPhone shots.  (The Nikon does an infinitely better job of the picture-taking.  Don't tell Apple they'll make a new camera.  Seriously guys all we want is three-way Facetime and to use Snapchat for more than an hour before our batteries die) 

ANYWAY I hope you all had a fabulous New Year in whatever corner of the world you're from.  I look forward to writing for you in this glorious year of 2018.