Advice to My 18 Year Old Self

So I often get asked what advice I’d give my 18 year old self, so I thought I’d put it in written form. There’s definitely things I wish I had a grasp on when I was younger, things that could’ve helped me up my game. There’s over a thousand pieces of advice that I could cover such as not making people hold like buttons in photos but here’s the top five.

When I was at the age of 18, I was still living with my parents in the suburbs of Nashville, TN. I had recently just gotten my first iPhone 5, my first iphone ever, I had never had a smartphone phone before cuz my family just couldn’t afford it. I saved up $750, a crazy amount of money to me, to buy this freaking thing. Before this, I used to take photos on my dad’s iPad. Please don’t scroll down to the bottom of my instagram. 

During this time I had started attending college meanwhile working at The Escape Game at nights to help pay for my tuition and expenses. I don’t come from a well off family. We rarely went out to eat. And this was also around the time I had started taking photography a bit more seriously. I had chosen to study programming in school, which it didn’t last long for me, but photography had my attention. This was around the time all those #VSCOCAM was booming. Instameets were happening regularly where you could meet that one famous photographer in your city that you really looked up to. The algorithm was in your favor where you’d get more likes and comments on your posts but meanwhile I didn’t really know how to make money from being photographer. I mean I knew how much people charged to photoshoots but I was like how to do you make a living from that. 

With all that said, here' are my five pieces of advice:

Master Your Mental Game.

If everyone took care of themselves emotionally and were more emotionally self aware, the world would be a much better place. There’d be more growth, people would treat each other better, there’d be less violence and all negative things happening in our world today. Even younger before 18. Understand what holds you back, how you treat people and how you value yourself. That’s huge thing. Not saying that it can all be solved. I mean I still deal with a lot of those things today, but it’s good to be self-aware.

Be Grateful.

We have so much to be thankful for. The more privileged we are as a society the easier it becomes to take things for granted such as food, housing, air conditioning, and clean water. I didn’t grow up wealthy at all but I was always provided for by my parents. I grew up living and traveling in different countries in Asia and I got to see what poverty really looks like. It shape shifted my perspective on life. From having lived in countries like India and Philippines, where most people are having to live off of what we spend on a meal here in the US. When you do see that first hand, you realize how blessed and provided for you are. This also makes me be grateful for where I live and the opportunity to work hard and make a career out of job we can think of. Opportunities that most people unfortunately don’t have in developing third world countries.

Interning.

I didn’t really quite understand the importance of interning. I wished I had spent more time learning from the people I looked up to in the photography community. At 17 or 18, interning for someone that I admired would’ve helped me grow creatively. Adding value to that world and the people in it would’ve helped me learn some lessons that I didn’t till recently. 

Entitlement Won’t Get Your Anywhere.

It’s not going to get you anywhere. Hard work and kindness will. So many kids these days think that they know everything once they’re out of school or that someone owes them something. That doesn’t work really especially in the creative world. I definitely had a sense of entitlement when I got on Instagram’s suggested list I thought I was this big shot who knew it all and had it figured out, but I didn’t really know anything. I didn’t want to go work for anyone else, but now that I look back I wish I had more of a balance between working for myself and also receiving mentorship. I think there’s something to mastering your craft, continuous learning and not having a sense of entitlement.

Give More.

I would’ve challenged myself to give more and be more active in donating my time, not only with my photo and video business, but just being a helping hand. I remember that once I got out of high school I became so caught up in working hard and focusing on my studies that I never made time to volunteer or give to charity. When you give more, you grow more. Living as a creative is challenging. It’s feast or famine. Security isn’t always consistent. If you have little, then give little.

So all things I just mentioned are things I still continue to work till this day. It’s a never ending process. They’re areas that I hope to continue to grow in and challenge myself in, and also inspire other to do the same. 

Keep pushing yourself. Be proactive. I hope you’re inspired. Share with your friends. Please like, it’ll help out a bunch, and subscribe to my channell. See you soon!