Shalista Blog

A year ago today I quit my job. For the previous two years before that I wanted to quit my job, but that was one year ago today.

Talk about scared. It’s weird to think of all that’s happened in one year, and all that wouldn’t if I still “worked”. That’s so funny, as if I don’t “work” now.

I had been wanting to do that, quit, for so long, that at the time, it was like I had talked about it and thought about it so much, that it really wasn’t something that was every actually going to occur. The day it happened I went into shock. I didn’t really know what I was doing, how I was going to do it, or IF I could do it. I kept telling myself I was prepared, but I don’t know if I really was.

I have learned SO MUCH in the past year. More than I had learned in the previous 5 years combined. I learned about being my boss, being someone else’s boss, made mistakes, took risks, made new friends, had new opportunities, did things I’d yearned to do, my art improved, my creativity flowed, and I could look at my family again without being totally exhausted and guilty because I was working more at home than at work. I could spend more time and energy being who I wanted to be, instead of just getting by as a glimpse of what I wanted to be.

It’s been a truly amazing year. 41 weddings, 180 portrait sessions, some teams, lots of mothers and their children, and countless other people through this place. I am excited to see what the next year brings.