New Beginnings

Have you ever believed that if you want something badly enough, some force will get you what you want?  Sometimes, I feel that way.  And when it happens– when the world comes together just so— it’s just wonderful.  The music plays; the stars align.

“Life is beautiful,” my mother would say.

I took this photo a few weeks ago in the Mission district of San Francisco.  It was taken spontaneously.  A stand alone shot, captured in a moment of inspiration.  “Occupy Waltz St.”  Cute moniker.  But, to be honest, I don’t even remember what they were playing.  My friend and I had spent the afternoon eating, talking, drinking.  Celebrating.

Earlier that day, I received a job offer for a position I had spent the prior 5 months interviewing and preparing for.  It had been a stressful time.  But I got to know the baristas at my local coffee shop pretty well.  I wanted this job.  Badly.  Two phone interviews, two day-long interviews, months of preparation, and one presentation later, I got a phone call while I was sitting on the hill of Dolores Park. 

I got the job!

I called my parents.  I called my boyfriend.  I texted my brothers. Success!

This is cause for celebration, my friend said.  Indeed.  Plus, she was on spring break from med school, and I had no where else to be. We wandered from Dolores Park through the Mission, finding a bar and sitting down for a drink. 

Over a couple of beers, we sat and watched an afternoon blossom into evening and a farmers market slowly unfold.  Music played.  Children scampered.  I shot some photos.

The streak of light running through the film is a reflection of the changes that occurred in my life.  The distorted colors are due to ISO 1600 enduring the stressors of an airport X-ray scan twice.  Stressors caused my personal and professional lives to twist and distort and throw me through a loop.  It might not be the most elegant way to get to where I wanted to be, but, like the resulting photo above, my life is all the more beautiful because of it.