I am not sure if this is normal, but there are a lot…a lot… of areas of my life that could fill the following sentence in various ways:
“If you had told me 10 years ago that I was going to ___________, I never would have believed you.”.  I’m sure a lot of people have this experience, but it extends so deeply into all of the major areas of my life that I have decided I want to share them, because for me, those experiences have laid a web of calm and trust of God’s plan that is surprising to say the least for someone as anxious and detailed oriented as I am!

While I always had “faith” at some level, I didn’t come to really begin to know God, to really pursue faith in my life, until my senior year of high school.  The past 11 years have been a whirlwind of learning and trusting and loving and change for me, and I am so grateful for it. That adventure is a story for another day- but it leads into this series of trusting God, and how He has made it so incredibly clear that He knows SO much better for my life than I could ever dream up- hence the “If you had told me….” statement and how many applications it has in my life.  And how many lessons I have learned from it.

The first, for today, during the 2nd week of school that my co-workers and students went back to without me, the statement is this:
“If you would have told me 10 (even 6!) years ago that I was going to become a photographer, I never would have believed you!”.

You see, I always knew I was going to be a teacher.  For as long as I can remember- I used to get in trouble when I was VERY young for writing on the walls with the back end of my princess wands, pretending it was a chalkboard!  I came from a long line of teachers- my mom, my dad, my step-mom…I married one, and much of his family works in education as well. It has just always been my life. And shortly after I was bit by the official music bug in 5th grade, I knew it would be music.  I am SO grateful that my life took that path, and as I have mentioned, hope that I am brought there again because music was the first thing I was TRULY passionate about in life in a way that meant “forever” to me- something I could do forever.  And I knew immediately upon entering my own classroom that I was made for it.

But my journey to photography was a little different.  I always loved it, in a way that meant ridiculous amounts of pictures from EVERYTHING.  I always looked for artistic ways to shoot things with my point-and-shoot.  And I had taken every photography class I could in high school, back when we were doing dark room and film! I also knew that I seemed to be a little more obsessed than even the average young woman with following wedding photography blogs of some friends who were photographers- I just was SO CAUGHT UP in the emotion and stories those images could tell of people I had never met, but instantly felt like I knew them forever based on the stories painted by those photographers.  But I NEVER knew that it would lead to all of this!

This post is incredibly long already- thank you for sticking through it- so the opening to my “Trusting God” series is going to be a 2 part!  Come back in the next few days for a few more beautiful newborn and senior sessions, and part 2 of how that little nudge and interest became a full blown career…and much more importantly, passion, in my life.  I am so excited to unravel some of the unbelievable ways God has worked in my story through this series, and to share the power that learning to really trust Him through these experiences has had on my life.

View Part II here!