meganbeth.com

Yes, the rumors are true, tomorrow is my birthday. Gulp, I have to admit, I kinda didn’t want it to come. ANOTHER YEAR OLDER…AGAIN? But, when I think about the past year, I am amazed at how far I’ve come. It certainly has been the good and bad, and yet I have grown heaps. I breathe a little deeper, love a little stronger, and try not to take the people I love for granted, because really, things can change on a dime. I’ve learned that with age comes difficult times, pain, and struggle. And life will constantly throw curve balls at you just to see if you can handle it. I GET it life, enough with the curve balls.

I’ve learned that you have to work endlessly hard for something you are passionate about. I would have never in my wildest dreams, imagined that I’d be sitting here today with my own thriving photography business. Me. My Business. Wake up in the morning when I want, business. It’s amazing and I feel so blessed to be able to do something I absolutely love and share it with so many people. It’s such hard work, but the kind comments and emails from people who appreciate my work, warm my heart and push me along when I feel like giving up.

I’ve learned that family is the most important thing in the world to me. I knew it before, but I think this past year something changed, they are the core of my soul. In times of need they have never once let me down and without them I couldn’t have gotten this far in life. Without them, I truly would be lost. They know me inside and out, and still love me despite the obnoxious singing, always wanting to go to Outback, and the won’t get the camera out of their faces tendencies I have.

I’m super excited to see what the future holds for me, sigh, even if that means another year older. In honor of my birthday, I thought I’d share some of my favorite things that I love…things that make me, me. YES MY VACUUM MAKES ME HAPPY.

A mountain cabin all to ourselves, and fresh powder outside our door. Closing up the weekend we promised we’d do it a again, but in the mean time we had to get back to school. We packed up the cars, and I jumped in the car with dad. Keys in. DOO…Dooo…dooo. Dead. On a mountain. In the snow. To be totally honest, I wasn’t that surprised. We spent most of our childhood rowing, ROWING people, back and forth all of our lunch meats, sodas, tubes, and suntan lotion out to dad’s sailboat only to find the battery dead as a doornail. And if this didn’t happen, it was the exception to the rule.

In true mountain fashion the first repair man couldn’t come look at the car until the next day, so dad stayed. We piled all my stuff in Brian’s car, I jumped in the back and we headed home. This was also back in the day when GPS’s were only in jet airplanes and our only navigation tool was this ridiculous piece of paper called a map. And we see on said map that there was a much more direct route that we should take home, instead of the non sense directions dad had given us. Of course.

Shortly after, we find ourselves in the middle of the deepest forest that ever lived. Trees as tall as buildings blocked what little sun there was, and the mountain roads seemed to be modeled after roller coasters. Fun, right? MAYBE FOR THE FIRST TEN MINUTES. Two and a half hours later I’m in the back DYING, pleading, begging for the FOREST TO END. I was car sick, for the first and only time in my life. I need sunlight. I need the road to stop winding right and left, and twisting up and down that I don’t know which way was up and which was down. I knew there would be an edge, an end to the forest and the sunlight would come out, I just couldn’t see it.

And today, I find myself in the same forest. Trying to keep my head above water. Trying to stay motivated and focused while doing the most amazing circus balancing act the Ringling Brothers have ever seen. It’s not easy, not one bit, but every day is a learning experience. And everyday I make mistakes and grow from them. I know there is an edge to the forest, I’m just eager to get to it. Because that’s what life is all about, holding on when you get stuck in the forest, and listening to your fathers’ directions IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Since no post is complete without a picture…here is some loveliness of me shooting at Kim and Geoff’s wedding. Alberta was trying to document my fearless middle. of. the. road. standing. wedding. photography abilities.