a few symbolic personal victories

My parents wanted me to go to Harvard and become a doctor. I applied to Harvard for undergrad and was rejected. I ultimately decided I didn’t want a pre-med path and decided to pursue photography as a career, something my parents were obviously very worried about. They were concerned with whether I could have a good life with this career, and embarrassed about it to the point that they’d lie about what I did for my job to other people, which of course felt awful. (My senior year, despite not really wanting to, I applied for some “prestigious” corporate jobs as a psychology major, was told by a 2nd year associate at one job who I met at a career fair that I should act surprised when I got the job offer phone call, but they ultimately found people with better corporate internship experience and I didn’t get that job. I taught English in Taiwan my rising senior summer and got to explore Taiwan so I would have only gotten the job based on “soft skills.” After I graduated, I got an awful corporate cubicle job in a place with drab everything and no windows nearby, a nightmare for someone so visual, surrounded by people who seemed to hate their jobs, and quit within 3–4 months, but had made enough to buy serviceable photo equipment. The job I left should have been automated. The position provided no value to society. I don’t know when or whether I would have dove into photography if those “prestigious” jobs worked out, so I am glad it happened this way.)

Photography was the best intersection of all my interests, and where I felt I could be the most impactful…