Business Strategist | Photographer
Adventure Traveler | Design & Other Arts
A typical week for me is Monday through Friday waking at 6 am to curate and edit pictures or work on things for design and other art projects, and often times calling to chat with my mother. Then at 8 am I start my full-time business job until 5 pm then I normally head to the boxing gym for one or two hours. Then, home, eat, shower, edit more pictures and work on potential social media content to post in the morning, then sleep. Saturdays and Sundays are spent shooting photography, surfing, scuba diving or some other extreme adventure activity and capturing the adventure photography along with it, which is my preferred subject to photograph. Into that mix goes networking, events, time with friends and somewhere in there eating and sleeping. For the past year and a half, I have done this with the Empire State Building in clear sight from my apartment window near Union Square in New York City.
I have always worked to this level for everything, but never did I think I would be doing it in Manhattan, New York. I spent the first 42 years of my life in Texas, with my childhood, high school, college and graduate school in a small, rural town not far from the border of Mexico.
The rest of my early adult life through my thirties was spent not too far from that, in San Antonio, Texas. When I was 21, my biological father passed away at the age of 45, so I have always had the realization early on of having no fear: we get one life, and it is very short.
This has made me more willing than perhaps many to be quite unafraid of risk. I spent most of my thirties in Texas honing in on my business career, attending art and photography classes in the evenings, and traveling the world chasing adventures any chance I could. From 2018 to 2019 my stepfather, who raised me as his own, fell quite ill and passed away. Then, the pandemic hit and right before my 40th birthday I was “diagnosed” with early onset menopause.
I soon came to the realization that my body hit a stage in life earlier than expected, and I did not want to spend a second more not really trying to chase after the things I wanted in my life; I was ready to stake claim in the second half of my time here in this world.
I had always dreamed of living in a place where I could really cultivate all the facets of who I truly am – a business strategist, photographer, extreme adventurist and traveler. So, I set out on a plan to spend the second half of my life doing just that.
It took three years, but I finally made it to my new starting destination. During the pandemic I taught myself how to play the stock market, I sold my three bedroom/two bath house, almost all my belongings and my car and bought a small studio of almost 500 square feet in Union Square.
It took me 42 years to hit this step in my life – a million steps to take a million more. I would tell anyone who wants to pursue a life of trail blazing, to be ready to fail over and over again. Be prepared to use that failure to propel you.
Use it to be fearless and courageous. Success in any realm requires constant work that goes on behind the scenes day in and day out in order to make it to the next level. Be prepared to do that work – no one becomes a successful sensation overnight.
As we change and grow and progress in any way, we ponder where we come from, where we are, and where we are going. Our journey is always evolving, no matter if it is moving to a new city, starting a family, starting a new job, chasing a dream, caring for a sick parent or mastering a new skill. That’s what makes the journey fun!
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