School, Hair, Guitar, and More

April isn't over yet, but I figured it was time for a Peterson update. Because it's been crazy busy over here.
Jacob got accepted to both Eastern Idaho Technical College AND Eastern Wyoming College. Woo-hoo! :) However, with the wait list at IT, he will be attending Eastern Wyoming College. We are nervous, and extremely excited for this new adventure in Torrington starting August 25th. :)
Well, I can officially say I have graduated with an Associates Degree! Hallelujah! It's been quite a long 6 semester, but I'm so ecstatic to be done and focus on my Photography Business which is booming right now!
Jacob got a Schecter Diamond Series Guitar. And let me tell you, he plays it every night before going to bed. I don't think I'll ever be able to separate him from it during his free time.
I chopped my hair off! I had been thinking about how selfish I can be and so I decided to work on it. When I began reflecting on things I could do to be more selfless, I instantly thought of my hair. So, I went and chopped of 13 inches to donate to Locks of Love. And a huge bonus is that I'm actually loving short hair! :)

After I graduated, Jacob and I took a mini Vacation with Andrew Black to Washington. It was definitely a much needed break and we had such a blast up there with good friends and good food. (Yeah, we went to Chipotle. ^_^)

We are now back in Cheyenne, Wyoming and are working for my dad at Ross Construction. It's taking us some time getting back into the swing of things, but it's so nice being home, and sleeping in a queen size bed again. :)

Advice | Peterson Update

It is amazing how the Lord puts people in your life at the right time, at the right place, and they say the right thing.
Last week I called my cousin Laura and we chit chatted about our lives. She was telling me about all the great things going on and then she said something that really caught me off guard. She said, "Jay, life really isn't that hard."
I busted up laughing. I really did. I couldn't believe she was saying that. But she went on.
"No, really. All you have to do is decide what you want, and go after it."
Laura was pretty much preaching the power of goal setting and visualization, which is something I tell everyone to do, and I was laughing at it…
This was kind of huge to me because of what had happened previously that week.

Jacob and I had just found out that there was a waiting list for the Welding Program at IT. Which meant he would have to do three years of school instead of two. Which meant an extra year of tuition, rent, and another year before being in a career.

So Jacob started to apply for Eastern Wyoming College, which was originally my first pick. I'll be honest, I wanted to be close to my family. I knew that the older we'd get, the busier we'd get. So I wanted to be close to them while I could. Especially since I'm gone 7 months out of year for College. But then I started researching.
Torrington's population is 6,800.
There is one skate park. (Thank goodness, because Jake would go insane if there wasn't)
One Elementary, Middle, and High School.
One Movie theater that shows one movie a night.
And if you do want to do anything, or want reasonably priced groceries, you have to drive to Scottsbluff, which is 45 minutes away, or Cheyenne, which is an hour and a half away.

I started stressing a bit. I was planning on running my photography business full time in the Fall, but how in the world would I do that with a population under 7,000? Many of those being college kids?
But Laura said exactly what I needed at that time. I had already decided I wanted to do my business full time. All I need to is make it happen. Obviously easier said than done, but I was thankful that Laura was there saying the words I needed to hear even if she didn't know it.

I still plan to do my photography business but I will most likely get a part time job so I don't go insane being home alone all day. Jacob is finishing up his application for Wyoming Eastern College where they currently have opening for their Welding Program. I am excited (and extremely nervous) for this adventure and to be close to my family for a couple years. Cheers to the next couple years!

What You Need To Do Right Now

Yesterday I attended a Photography Networking Event. It was wonderful to connect with such kind and talented people in my industry. I was so glad hearing that I'm not the only one who gets lonely in this business.

A very knowledgable photographer brought up such a great point that has completely opened my mind. He mentioned that if we were ever to have a Dark Age, if all technology crashed, we would have nothing documented of this time. Absolutely nothing.

Our generation is the most photographed generation, yet no one would ever know because we don't print.

We are guilty of not printing our photos. I'm guilty of it! I have over 5,000 personal photos on my laptop and I haven't printed them. But I need to. I NEED to sit down for just an hour and pick out photos for an album. Honestly, I know it wouldn't even be an hour because I would get so into it and I'd want to just go through photos all day.

So, why don't you?

One of my all time favorite things is going through my parents old albums and seeing their awkward dating years, my mom's "I-like-your-sleeves" wedding dress, and even pictures of me as a baby! I swear I went through those albums any chance I got.

For FHE this upcoming week, I am going to go through Jacob and I's laptops and get photos into folders for different time periods. I have challenged myself to print all those iPhone photos I never got to, and make albums for them. I want to show my kids our dates, our first car, the camper, the funny faces we made. I want my kids to see that.

I challenge you to do the same.

If you have time to be on Facebook, I promise you have time to pick out some photos to print.

Go through your phone, your laptop, your digital camera, and start printing your photos! I'm not telling you to go spend a fortune, or to get them in the highest quality there is, but I am telling you to print them. You do not know how much your kids, your grad kids, and your great-great grad kids will appreciate it.