Coffee with an old friend

Today I had the chance to visit with an old friend, Brady Lane. I didn't even know Brady was in town until another friend told me he had come to speak to her class. Brady has been working at the Marshfield News Herald for the past several years. He and I were able to talk for about an hour, and I have to say that our conversation really helped me put my current situation in perspective. Brady told me that he was out of school for 9 months before he found his current job, and that he had been feeling some of the very things I have been as he searched for employment. I have been so focused on finding a job or deciding what to do after graduation that I have even considered doing types of work that I know wouldn't make me very happy but bring in some extra income such as portrait work or wedding photojournalism. I guess I thought that if I couldn't find a job at a paper by May then it was all over for me, I would have to sell out. I know this probably sounds stupid, but that's how I have been looking at things. I walked away from our conversation with a sense of relief, a burden had just been lifted off of my shoulders. I still do want to have a job lined up by May, but on the chance that I don't my life isn't over. So often we focus on one goal so hard that we get our perspective out of whack, and forget that there is a larger picture to look at.

We also talked about finding small papers that still put our good work, since I will most likely be starting at a smaller publication. It's good to hear from someone who has found one and encouraging to think that I can do the same. I felt that my photo editor from my internship, Mark, was one of those editors who pushed his photographers to keep a high standard and I hope that I can work for someone like that again. Overall, it was good just to hear from an old friend and catch up.