Ahhhh it’s September, guys!!!! September has always been a favorite month of mine, because well, my birthday is in September! Plus NFL starts in September (whoop whoop) AND fall starts in September which means hellooooo cute jeans and booties!

But this September, it’s my favorite month for a whole new reason.

We as people all have some level of dreams and/or aspirations – big or small. In the quiet time in our days, we think about them. We expand on them. We obsess over some of them. How cool it’d be if they came true. How different life would be. How more than anything we want them to come true. But very few of us genuinely believe they’ll ever really come true, because they’re our “dreams” after all.

But for some of us, dreams do come true.

And for me, I am so excited to officially announce that my dream has come true. That’s right, I officially quit my job this morning to pursue my dream of being a full-time wedding photographer!! I literally haven’t stopped smiling all day. Tears fill my eyes as I put my thoughts to words. I am so overwhelmed with happiness. I never thought this day would come. Sure I have dreamt of it and thought of how amazing it’d be. I looked to other photographers and was so envious that they did it. But I just never thought, for me, that I could make it come true.

And then it did.

It’s funny. While I was still working full-time in corporate America, I was shooting weddings and lifestyle sessions galore. But when someone asked me what I did, I’d tell them about my full-time job and then say “I’m also a photographer.” But every time I told people that, I felt ashamed a little. Like I wasn’t a real photographer because I was also working a full-time job. I was scared to meet with couples because I didn’t want my full-time job take away any credibility to my photography business. Like I was less of a photographer because I wasn’t doing it 100% of the time.

But now? The reality hit me that “holy cow, I left corporate America.” Reality struck that I am actively pursuing my dream, not just thinking about it. And that? That’s really really amazing. I AM a wedding photographer. When someone asks me what I do, I now can say 100% that I am a wedding photographer. In some really weird dumb way, it makes me feel like I’m actually a photographer now. Not just some hobbyist with a camera. It makes me proud. And happy. Happy like never before.

Seconds after I resigned, I opened up my email and saw this in a newsletter from Justin + Mary.

 

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The Hardest Part is Starting

The hardest part about sending that email that could change everything is not pressing send…it’s writing the first line

The hardest part about going full time is not the day you leave your day job….it’s the day, months before then, when you decide to leave your day job and start putting in the work to make it happen.

The hardest part is starting.

It’s the day you’re willing to stop talking about it (trust me, everyone has already heard you talk about it) and to take one step, no matter how small, to actually doing it.

To be able to resist the resistance, lean in to the fear, and sit through the edginess. To push past that uncomfortable feeling that comes every time you tip toe at the borders of your comfort zone and for once not go running back into the shelter of what has always been. To take that step out of the shadows. To pull yourself off of the sidelines. Into the uncertain. And into the unknown.

Be willing to decide. Be willing to begin. Be willing to try. Because what we know is life doesn’t begin when you’re finished. Life begins when you start.

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Life, guys, is starting for me. Starting like never before.

Literally that email couldn’t have come at a better time. It gave me this feeling of pure joy and also a feeling of peace. Of this happiness that cannot be described. A feeling that I made the right decision. That I am in control of my life, not someone else. That life is now exactly how it was meant to be all along.

I am doing this. I feel so confident. And so proud of myself. And so excited. There may be unknown and “shadows,” but those are what make me excited. I have no idea what this new chapter of my life holds, but so far in the new chapter I’ve become a momma to an amazing little boy and officially became a small business owner working for no one other than myself.

And so to you September, you are a month of big life changes! I’ll always have a special place in my heart for you.

Hi, my name is Jenna. I’m a wedding photographer.

 

[image captured by the insanely talented Britta Marie Photography]