First, let me start off with a little back story:

I took voice lessons as a kid and I continued my lessons all throughout high school and some of college as I majored in Musical Education for my first 2 years. I loved to sing. Well, I shouldn’t say LOVED …I still do. I LOVE singing, I just hated performing. When it came down to performing each year in front of my family, friends, peers, and professors (or in college it was a few times a semester! eek!), I was often seen pacing the hallways about to have a panic attack and being comforted by my sweet classmates.  Although I loved music so much, I soon found that it simply wasn’t my life’s passion.  I eventually left the dream of pursuing music and pursued a dream of owning my own business or at least doing something in the business world by majoring in Economics. But that’s another story. 🙂

 

Photo by Alisha Massengill

 

So now here’s where Taylor comes in. We were sitting on the couch the other night and Vince pulled up a video of Taylor Swift singing “Wildest Dreams” at the Grammy Museum on his computer.  We are big T-Swift fans…Swifties I guess you could say, so when I hear her voice I can’t help but stop what I’m doing and listen. As we watched her get in front of the crowd to play on stage with only her guitar and her voice, we were completely enamored.  Vince turned to me and said, “That’s got to be so hard getting up in front of all of those people. If she messes up just one chord, everyone will know.”  I thought about that for a minute. Yeah, it IS hard. I’ve been in her shoes before and it definitely not easy to get up in front of a crowd like that.  But then I thought for a few seconds longer and said, “Yeah, it’s hard but she knows that song like the back of her hand. This is her job… her passion.  She always does an amazing job and no one would care if she messed up a chord. There’s so many people that love her, her voice, and that song!  I also think that Taylor would just laugh at herself, say oops, and keep going. She seems strong like that. By the end of the song, no one would even remember that she had messed up in the first place.”

After I said that, I couldn’t help but relate that to my own life.  Why am I so afraid of messing up?  We all have fears and doubts… and you know what? It’s OK to be scared. Honestly, I feel that if I’m not pushing myself out of my comfort zone…If I’m not creating new, big goals for myself… If I’m not trying to be better, I’m not really living my dream. It’s never easy to get in front of a crowd, put yourself out there for all to see, and open yourself up for criticism, but I know that once we get past the initial fear and doubt, there are so many greater things in store for us.

It’s kind of hard to put this in writing for some reason, but honestly, I strive to be a Taylor in the photography industry. I want to continually face my fears, put myself out there, to teach, to encourage and to inspire others. THAT is my purpose.

I’d love to hear from you! What is your purpose? Who inspires and encourages you?

 

In case you haven’t seen it already – here’s a video! It’s definitely worth a listen! Grab a glass of wine and enjoy! 🙂