“As you start your journey, the first thing you should do is throw away that store-bought map and begin to draw your own.”
-Michael Dell

I think we all get lost at times looking for a path to things that people say will make us happy. A lot of us get caught up in pursuits of ambition for merit or material only to achieve what others tell us will make us successful in life. So we strive for goals that other people set for us and we even convince ourselves that once we hit those goals, or quotas or landmarks in our careers or personal lives that those are the moments that will reward us with fulfillment and happiness. But how do we define success? More importantly, who is defining success for you?

What I have found in my own life to be true is that no one has got it all figured out. I have raced after my own quotas and goals time and time again to know that once I got there, to that hallowed moment where I was promised fulfillment and riches and happiness; the moment was so fleeting that it seemed to turn to ash in my hands before I could even process that I hadn’t reached a finish line. The race just kept on going. The mirage of fulfillment in what I was doing just kept getting farther and farther away. And as tends to happen in any race, let alone a never-ending one… I got tired.

So now I’m here, and all I have gotten from this experience is that I am tired. I am really really tired. But I’m finally learning.

I’ve learned that I don’t want to race any more and I’m finished having anyone else define what pursuits will make me successful in life. I learned that I like myself a lot more when I’m doing the things that I love to be doing. And when I like myself more, I can be a better husband to my wife, and a more attentive father to my daughter. My relationships with those two people more than anything in my life is what I’m learning to define my fulfillment by, because nothing makes me happier than seeing happiness in their smiles and in their hearts. I’m finished chasing down a dream that someone else put in front of me. Because at the end of the day, the money and accolades mean nothing if I am miserable.

There is no path to happiness, happiness IS the path.

So that’s why I’m here. I’m here starting this blog as a platform for my photography and videography, a hobby where fulfillment is the only pay I’m after. I’m here not because I care about accolades or money, but because I want to care about what I’m doing.

This is my passion.

I want to be able to say that I pursued my passion. That my passion consumed me whole and left nothing but a trail of inspired work and when it’s all said and done, when I’m long gone and buried, if I’m lucky enough to have people I’ve left behind who remember me fondly. They can say on my behalf that I lived with passion.

This is me finding my own path. Feel free to join me.

-Jj