The Summer That Changed Everything
This summer has been a lot. My days blurred together between long drives all over Washington and Oregon for branding shoots, content sessions, and meetings. Then coming home meant switching gears with editing galleries, designing websites, managing social media calendars, making dinners, packing lunches, being a stepmom, and trying to keep a house running.
There were plenty of moments where I felt stretched thin in every direction. Burnout showed up more than once, reminding me that I can’t do it all, all the time. But in between the chaos, something shifted.
This was the summer I bet on myself.
For years, I carried around the quiet weight of other people’s assumptions, like photography was just a phase or a side thing. But this summer, I stopped waiting for outside approval. I rebuilt my business from the ground up, raised my prices, redefined what I wanted my work to look like, and went all in. And it’s working.
Somewhere in the grind of building, rebranding, saying yes to opportunities, and showing up online when I didn’t always feel like it, I realized: the life I’ve been working toward is actually happening. What once felt like a daydream is now a blueprint I get to live out.
That doesn’t mean it’s been easy. I learned the hard way what happens when I try to be in two places at once. I’ve had months where my calendar was overflowing, my energy was drained, and I was giving half of myself everywhere instead of fully showing up anywhere. I had to accept that rest isn’t optional, it’s part of doing good work, being a good partner, stepmom, friend, and creative.
And maybe one of the hardest parts: learning to remind myself that what I do is real work. Even if it happens at my kitchen table instead of a clock-in job. Even if it doesn’t always look like “work” to the people around me. It counts, because I know how much it takes to build something sustainable, piece by piece.
Now that summer is winding down, I feel both proud and humbled by everything I’ve created and ready to step into fall with a different pace.
This fall, I’m choosing myself. But choosing myself doesn’t mean not caring about others, it means making sure I have enough energy, presence, and joy to actually show up fully for the people I love.
I want slow mornings, where the day starts with intention instead of rushing. I want to build a healthy routine that gives me energy instead of drains it. I want dinners with my family every night. And when I travel for shoots, I don’t want to just pack up and leave the second the work is done. I want to linger, to explore, to let myself enjoy the places I’m lucky enough to visit.
Because at the end of the day, I am more than my work. I’m a woman who values family, who loves wandering through small towns, who finds joy in the balance between creating and simply being.
Summer was for building.
Fall is for becoming.