Marie in the Middle

Well, the good news is, I got my jump drive back!

Yaay!  Turns out a kid from another lab found it and turned it into their lab instructor.  I'm glad I asked about it, or I wouldn't have gotten it back.

On to matters of real life importance.
Last week, I had gone into something akin to despair after watching a documentary in my photojournalism class about travel photojournalism.

The photographer, Joel Sartore, emphasized the toll that his job took on his family.  While Sartore was fortunate enough to have a wife and three children, he sure didn't sugarcoat the affect that his job puts on his family.  Then, right after watching the documentary, Johnson, my prof, explained that many times journalists don't have any social life, and they don't get married until after they retire.

Guh.

Now, of course, he's talking about rather extreme cases.  For many people, their job=life.  Will this be the case for me, I'm not sure.  Still, I'm still not willing to accept that.  For me, family and relationships trump any sort of personal gain through whatever means.  Call me old fashioned, anti-feminist, whatever.  My priorities simply lie in family.

And not just the family I plan to have in the future, but the family I have now, too.  In a short six months, I'm going to be an auntie.  Of course, I already consider myself an aunt to Ava, but this is my brother's kid I'm talking about.  I'll be a real auntie.  I want to be able to be their for my family.

Of course I want to travel and experience the world and live my own life separate from my parents, but I hold responsibility to them too.

ANYWHO,
Monday in photojournalism we briefly talked about making money in photography.  The good news is, from what I gather from Johnson, I might not be destined to be broke.  YES.  This has been a concern of mine ever since deciding to pursue a journalism degree.

During the discussion he brought up wedding photography.  Ahhh, here we are.  This is what got me interested in the idea of photography in the first place.  This is good.

The fact is, wedding photography is stressful.  But to me, oh so worth it.  So, as of right now, this is what I'm pursuing.  Upon graduation, whenever that will be (I'm going to angst over this in a bit)  I will try to apprentice under someone and hopefully get myself set up.  And perhaps I could write or hold a job in publishing or something while doing so.

It really is a shame we only get chance on this world.  There's too many lives I want to live, too many directions to take.  But I guess I'll do the best I can with the time I have.

Now for the angst topic.  Today, after contemplating my last two semesters of school, I realized, "hey!  I think something is not quite right."

I have two semesters left, yes?  Two more jours, two more photo jours, one more cmlt (children's lit, yes!  NEXT SEMESTER YES YES YES YES YES), and one more business.  6 Classes is extremely manageable for the next two semesters.  The problem lies in those two phorojours.  The next class I need to take is 3710.  Problem:  3710 is only offered during the Fall semester.  Well, next fall is my last semester.  Still, I figured I could manage.  But no, because the last jour I need to take is 5370 or something like that, which requires 3710 as a prereq.  Blast.

Not good.  So does this mean that despite being told for the last year + that I'm going to have to stay an extra semester?  Probably.  Am I pissed off?  Horribly.

I've already cried complained to my mom about it.  But I suppose if I'm meant to stay here another whole 6 months, then I'm meant to stay.  In some ways it'll be convenient, in someways, I really really really wanted to graduate in a year.  I was looking forward to it SO MUCH.  The other slightly good news, if I do stay, I will either start a full time job or something or take a few more classes.  I was actually complaining to Shaye the other night that I wish I had taken some New Media classes.  Well, this might be the chance.

Who knows?  I'll see what happens, especially when I get a response back from my advisor and during my appointment with her.

But yes, so life struggles happen.  And once again, college troubles have resulted in a drastic change in plans.

I can't think of much else to write.

Well, other than that a local Athens theatre is doing Dr. Horrible in a few weeks.
I'm not sure what to think about it.  I'll probably see it anyways.

Here, have a picture of my nephew: