I remember wading in the water. Still and clear, holding me up unto my chest. My skin facing west soaked in the warm, afternoon heat, half of my body in cool delight. My toes curling on white sand. I was on my favorite beach, the place familial as it is to my family, to me as it was the reason for my first surge of flight adventure. To me because it took my father from me before my teenage years yet rewarded me with things my earthly mind and body cannot bear. I've somehow grown up with the island even if I don't go as often as I should to call it home. It is home, still.
There's always something refreshing in doing what you love just for you. Writing for yourself brings healing. Photographing for yourself brings understanding. It always separates itself from what you do for others, for your clients or friends. I'm not encouraging greediness here, it's really not the point. What I mean is, and I hope you get it, is that, at some time in our lives, we will need to work for ourselves just to move on in life itself. We will need to do ourselves a favor and risk the mundane to be able to see things clearly and start living. I'm not saying to quit your job. Be wise. Be wise in your decisions. But always, always choose to follow your heart and do not delay, for where your heart is you will always the happiest, the most successful. Like a light bulb that sparks to life, it will come to you. You will know it.
This, my undergrad, twenty-year-old self speaking.
Hello, I'm Ira.
There are three things that have become constant in my life so far: my love for taking photos, my penchant for traveling, and my utter need for writing. Welcome to my little notebook of dreams and daydreams.