But I'll try. =)

Well, another job almost done, another job about to begin. About two months ago, I quit the college and started full-time at CVS. Is it weird that one of the least prestigious jobs I've ever had has been wonderful? My official title is Photo Lab Supervisor, and honest to God, I enjoyed being in charge of something. Being responsible for something. Doing everything I could (albeit for low pay) to make that photo lab run efficiently. I care about the business, corporation though it is. I had found my little niche to take care of and damn, I liked it.

But I gotta move on. My plan when I started CVS was to stay a year. If nothing better came along, I would attempt to transfer to some place out northwest, which is where I want to be. Colorado, Washington, Oregon, hell, Alaska.

It's alllllllll changed now though. Didn't get to go to Alaska this year. 3 days before I was supposed to board that plan and run away for 3 weeks, I got an email. I was offered a job I had interviewed for in Virginia.

You know, it's weird. I went to CVS for 1) a full-time job (because I've had no luck finding one in the video biz and figured photo wasn't that much of a long shot from it) and 2) Because I wanted to get out of video and figure out what I really wanted to do.

(Not to mention I just wanted to get the fuck away from my alma mater. DAMN, I could stand the job, but I've been at that school for way too much fucking long. I started going there before I started high school. It wasn't the people, wasn't the actual school itself, but when I had to run audio for an awards convocation that I had been honored at a year prior and having an extremely awkward conversation with my ol' professor, I knew I needed to move on.)

A job is a job, however. And this job looks like it will be challenging in ways to me that I haven't experienced before. That's what I liked about CVS. I was placed in charge of something and I was challenged by the possessed printer, obsolete photo kiosks and snooty customers. True, it would have grown old quick.

Plus, this was pretty much my only opportunity to get back into video. If I didn't get this, it was pretty much over. But somehow, everything worked out. And in addition, as soon as I accepted the job, I got two calls, one from a place in Oklahoma, another from a station in Kentucky, asking if I was interested in applying for jobs.

I think all my work experience has given me something to keep going. When I quit the TV station, the chief videographer kind of went off on me, saying that young people don't want to earn anything, just want life handed to them on a plate. I had a response to that, several actually, but I understand what he was getting at now. The TV station was my first job out of college. I didn't appreciate the sheer fact that I HAD a job then. Minimum wage though it was, I was a TV news videographer at 18 years old.

Now, after the college and being humbled to a retail job, you realize how any job is JUST a job. The only thing that makes or breaks it is how you approach it. What's your work ethic? Do you have pride in your work, however small in significance it is?

And now being offered a job as an associate editor/videographer, with more than double the salary I make now is a dream come true that I have to take and appreciate.

And more than that, this is my chance to be out on my own. For the first time in my LIFE, it's gonna be all me. That's just..wow. In terms of my family (because I consider my 3 cousins my closest family, in lieu of siblings), I'm the last one out. I didn't expect this. I thought I had at least another year. But damn, this is it. Sink or swim, baby..I'm moving in 10 days.

One last thing: I was talking with my dad the other night and I mentioned something that had been on my mind. Never, not once, did my parents ask me to stay and not move 5 hours away, even with all the help they say they need around the house and all the projects they're currently doing. And he told me they considered it, but that it was killing me to stay. He said he saw that I was in a rut that I was unable to break out of and that I needed something else.

And I just had to think to myself, wow. That's love.