related by blood

i’d like to take a moment to write about something positive and great before we break for the weekend.

do you have a sibling? do you have a (or a few) sibling(s) you adore and are so proud of? if so, then this is the post for you!

i have one darling younger sister. in age we really are not all that far apart – just shy of 2 years. but since she is the younger sister, the baby of the family, i have always considered her to be… well, the baby of the family. she turned 25 in december, but in my mind’s eye i still think of her as a cute 15 year old. by the way, she’s still really cute. the girl was blessed with dimples after all.

i don’t know about your family, but in my family one of us was the better student. yeah, me, the quintessential older child. my sister’s talents and interest laid elsewhere, mostly in the art realm, where my exceptionally practical parents believed no one could make a lucrative living out of. even though they were artists themselves, go figure. my sister had some struggles throughout her school days, but she nevertheless graduated from college with aplomb. she even got a minor in classical studies. i had no minor. and now even though she doesn’t have, in the words of our mother, “a real job,” i think that she is doing something extraordinary for a girl her age.

back in college, my sister’s desire was to major in photography. well, unfortunately (or fortunately?) her style did not resonate with the photography department’s expectations so she was not accepted. nonetheless, i think that rejection only strengthened her resolve to do what she wanted to do. dang it, they were not going to tell her that her photographs were not good! that she had no future as a bona fide photographer! this is called stubbornness at work, or, picking yourself up when you’re down, something i am not so adept at. the lady scrimped and saved and got her very own professional canon SLR, took up a market-dependent therefore very unstable job as a photographer’s assistant and started to learn the ropes while earning steady money at a restaurant and now as a barista. last year she partnered up with a fellow art student from college and ventured out in the wide world to start their own business: imprints photography, LLC. website forthcoming.

as a kid, i knew my sister looked up to me. it’s just what younger siblings do. but now i am the one looking up to her. this girl did not let the UW photography department defeat her, which it very well could have done. it’s so easy to sit around and talk and daydream about owning your own business, being your own boss. hell, it’s easy to sit around and talk and daydream period. but to actually go out there and act and take that plunge, that risk is more than admirable. i sit around and watch her and her partner mya (who also has a day job) having business meetings, pouring over ideas, photos, researching, budgeting, taking classes and planning and it fills me with awe and pride at how these two girls are intersecting their real world with their dream world.

so even though i’m the one making big bucks compared to her, she is the one who really followed her heart and was courageous enough to do so. and while it does not mean that she doesn’t have her own set of QCC woes, she’s definitely taking a big step in the right direction. i am excited to see where this road takes her. success story #1. i’m certain there are countless others. share!

oh and if you ever need a photographer, i know two very talented ones.

a week in review

to sum up this week…

this blog was unveiled to the world at large. and it was met with a very warm and enthusiastic welcome. we have a fair number of contributors, all giving us unique perspectives and differing points of views. beyond political commentary, i have spoken about dreams and my desire to go to grad school, despite being in the dark about for what. i am contrasted by genevieve, very much in the throes of her post-undergraduate degree and voicing her anxieties of a smaller income than those who are working and anticipating many more years of schooling. we have two ladies who are both living in the south. katherine is a northwest transplant living in maryland (okay, okay marybe maryland is not a southern state, but it’s pretty damn close), happily married and in possession of the retirement account that genevieve lacks and wondering how much more of life she can take on. susan is a southern girl at heart, still 25 and going through some of the things we all identify with – working at a job we simultaneously love and hate, also with dreams of getting a masters degree dancing in the periphery. all three of these girls have moved from home (and back) to pursue what they deem they needed to pursue. yet all three for very different reasons. and perhaps expectations to how everything will turn out?

like susan, mark originates and grew up outside the pacific northwest, which certainly brings it owns conflicts and culture shocks. where we come from plays a vast part in our outlook on life. trying to find his own way, he has branched off and run into a few unexpected forks in the road here. and finally we have dan, who soaks up information and whatever he reads like a sponge, inspiring thoughts and feelings within him that he is not too shy to share while awaiting graduate school notice.

together we comprise the contributors (so far) to this collaborative quarter century project. i think for the most part, most of us seemingly have our lives figured out. and certainly none of us are wanting for the basic necessities of life. in all our cases, we were lucky to have benefited from a college education and are capable of providing for the things we need without too much help. i confess there are moments when i think that really, we have life very good. so what are we really complaining about? but i think you can discern from what you’ve read so far, in all the entries that these posts are not truly over-zealous whines about our lot in life so much as making sense of it all and how to make the best if not the most of it. i believe that is a very basic human reaction to… well, living. one that certainly you have given some thought to as well?