full circle

It’s ironic, when I think about it, how much my life has gone, if not full circle, come back around again.

When I was in high school, living in Europe, but knowing I was about to go to college, all I could think of were ways to come back after college.  How could I make a living in Europe after I graduated college AND make sure it was something I loved doing?  Europe was perfect for me, I loved history, I loved writing and I liked taking pictures (and this in the days before digital).  I thought a lot about doing photo-journalism, not necessarily doing things like covering Kosovo (which happened while I lived in Europe), but traveling around Europe and doing simple historical articles about these places I love.  Maybe even a book.  

Back in the States, I started college, took the required generic classes my first year at a community college, then transferred to a big university.  There, I thought I would major in Communications and minor in Russian and Eastern European Studies.  There were many things I struggled with in college, not the least of which were homesickness and finding my place.  In the end, I went through four years of college in three states, but never graduated.

Now, nine years after I quit, I’m finishing up my first year of being back in college.  This time I only took one class per term; first year Russian, but I enjoyed it, I’ve been passionate about it.  Also, about a year ago, I started writing again.  I started a Facebook page as a platform for my poetry, both old, and hopefully someday, new.  I started four new blogs, one analyzing a book series I love, one about going back to school, one about book/movie reviews and one about just plain writing (this one).  Everything’s coming together nicely, but something’s still missing. 

Then, at the end of April, my husband and I bought the dSLR camera that I’ve been wanting for probably ten years.  Digital camera – single lens reflector: a really nice camera.  For the past few weeks I’ve been playing around with the camera, and then of course (me being me) I wanted more.  So….we also downloaded a trial version of Adobe Photoshop CS6, well, we actually downloaded Adobe Design Standard CS6, which includes a whole slew of programs, including InDesign. 

If not for the tutorial videos, I would have cried.  Yet, because of those videos, I’m ecstatic about what I can do and antsy about getting back to doing it.  We took over 300 pictures at the Rose Gardens yesterday with my new camera (yay!) and I’m excited to take some of those pictures and see what I can do with them in Photoshop.  We also took a few pictures of the dogs at the park and I’m wondering how we can play with those pictures.  Even the few things I’ve learned so far have been really neat, three kinds of blurring, straightening, pinching, etc. 

Then…or rather, alongside, learning Photoshop, I also want to learn InDesign.  InDesign is an Adobe program for designing print and digital publishing.  Since Microsoft Publisher came out it has been one of my best friends (although I admit we hadn’t been as in touch before I started classes).  Fliers, calendars, and poetry booklets were only a few of the publications I designed.    Now, I’d like to see if I can learn to use InDesign to create a poetry booklet, combined with some of the pictures I’ve taken recently, and maybe even edited with Photoshop.  And maybe, just maybe, if I like the program enough, use it to create some neat booklets of the pictures from my Europe trip coming up in September. 

See; if not full circle, I knew back then what I loved doing, and it just took me almost half my life to get around to doing it. Let's see what happens with it.
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