When I Grow Up

When I was a young girl... (what a cliche beginning.  XD)

Every person had dream jobs when they were growing up.  We change our minds so many times because we find something new and cool to get into.  I think that most women go through a stage where they want to be teachers.  I remember wanting to be a teacher at one point.  Then when I got older I realized that kids are brats!  haha.  At least the ones I was used to growing up with.  If I were to be a teacher, there would be no way that I would teach middle school.  I give credit to the teachers out there who do teach middle school.  Those kids are tough brats!  I would have classmates that would make my teacher cry almost 3x a week in my last year of middle school.



I used to dance when I was younger.  I always wanted to do pointe.  The ones that you see in movies with the pink shoes and standing on their toes.  Sure that would really mess up your feet and the bones in them, but I think those shoes are so beautiful and the poses that the girls can hold are amazing!  If there is one thing I wish I could do still, it would be pointe.  I miss dance.  I did it from 1st grade to 10th grade.  But then people in my studio towards the end were just getting too catty and mean for me, so that's when I decided to make the switch to full time kendoist (for those that are new, i posted about it here: http://shiseitenhikari.blogspot.com/2009/12/retrospective.html).  My sister still does it, and I hope someday to photograph her and make her feel beautiful.  :)

At some point in time I remember wanting to be a Disney animator. I grew up on Disney films and always found it so magical and perhaps a bit nostalgic when I watch them now.  My favorite were always the random, under appreciated ones like The Great Mouse Detective or Atlantis  (though I must point out in this picture....Anastasia is NOT a Disney movie!!).  I remember researching what it took to be an animator and was always drawing.  But then Disney announced that they were no longer going to be doing hand-drawn animation and thus, my dream ended.  I didn't want to do stuff on computers like everything is done nowadays.








Around the time I was in 4th grade to about 8th grade I wanted to be an astronomer.  I went through this giant phase where I was absolutely obsessed with the universe and how it worked.  I wanted to be a cosmologist, someone who studies the universe and how it works.  I was obsessed with the planets and stars, and I partly contribute it to my love of Star Wars and Sailor Moon.  hahahaha.  I know I'm a nerd.  =P  I loved pictures of nebulas and deep space and my goal at one point was to own a telescope.  My dad took me to the top of Mount Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii to go look at the observatory at the top!  It was a great adventure and since it was so high up, we had certain rules for eating before traveling up there.  But then I realized around high school that I'm terrible at math and my dreams of researching the stars died.  Now I just enjoy looking at them and knowing what I do know about them.

I've always wanted to learn Japanese.  I'm a fourth generation Japanese American, and have always had great pride in my heritage.  I set out to learn Japanese in high school no matter what and took it for all four years.  I loved it, but we had a mix up with teachers and my class never took Japanese seriously after that.  It was a struggle to learn in that class because we had a few different new teachers and less interest in the students.  I learned a little but what I did learn stayed with me.  In college I took Japanese 1-4 and found it much more work that high school.  I learned a lot of stuff, but we learned it so quickly, it never really stayed in our minds.  My goal was to go to San Francisco State University to major in Japanese and become a translator.  Unfortunately, I had some slip ups and ended up deciding against it.

In the end, I am now here at the Brook's Institute.  I started photography in high school during my junior year.  I feel in love with it and haven't looked back since.  I originally was thinking of art school, but my parents wanted me to get a degree in something else first before art school.  Then with a few years at a community college and a little persuasion, I'm down here in Santa Barbara living my dream  :)  I'm already halfway done with my 2nd session and time just keeps on racing by.  It's a crazy road that life has taken me down to get to where I am today.  Looking back on my childhood dreams I can see connections between the ideas.  Majority of the things I wanted to do growing up has to relate to connecting with people and being creative.  My ultimate goal is to become a successful photographer, live in Japan, and photographing the things I love most in the world.  I'm living the dream.  And enjoying life while I do it.  :D

a year of happiness :D

Man, 2009 went by in a flash.  Loved, lost, and learned to be happy through it all.  :)  The beginning of the year was a hard one.  But I made new friends and got to be more outgoing.  Summer '09 was one of the best I've had yet, and I became super close with my best guy friend over the course of the year.  ^_^  I've had to say goodbye to one of my best friends (her family moved out to Wisconsin) and hopefully we will see her again, and then another one of my best friends is now 6 months pregnant!  ah, that time in my life already?  XD

I made the executive decision to start my education at the Brook's Institute of Photography and will begin on January 8th.  For those who don't know what brooks is, it is a very famous photography school in beautiful Santa Barbara, CA.

 It's a 3 year, year-round program and by the end I will have a BFA.  :D  Not sure what my main focus will be (I wanna keep an open mind), but I love fashion photography and people photography (making them kinda artsy and all that stuff).  My parents used to want me to get a degree in Japanese (my first passion), but then I realize that to be a language major you should really start off at your four year, I decided I would continue to work on Japanese on my own (I've taken 6 years of Japanese).  I would love to live there for a year or so and just learn the language that way.  I know most of it, it's just the flow of it now.  Who knows what these next 3 years will bring me.  If all goes as planned I will be done Dec. 22, 2012.   :)  I'm ready to get out there and do stuff.  2 years at a junior college was good, and I got to be on nor-cal's team for the US Kendo championships in exchange and was able to feel confident with my kendo.  I will miss my friends from that the most.  And just the experience of being in it.  I hope to practice down in Santa Barbara someday and get back into it.

Since not many people know what it is, Kendo is a Japanese martial art that is sorta like fencing.  Except that it has MUCH more contact than the fencing that many people are used to seeing on TV.   You have headgear, a protective body armor and wrist guards.  You can hit an opponent at the head, wrist, body, (and for experienced players) the neck.  Your kiai (or yelling) is essential to scoring points also.  The idea is that you are making your opponent fear you by vocalizing.  haha.  I am told that my kiai is intimidating and I am usually very loud.  I like to help raise the spirits of my team mates when we have really hard and strenuous practices.  Here's a video of what a kendo match typically looks like.  These guys are the top of the world, so they're a different league, but it's the general idea.  haha.  Maybe someday I'll get a video of me on Youtube, but until then....




This is what I love to do.  I have been doing it since I started high school, which now would be...6 1/2 years now.  :)  I hope that you guys also have something that you're passionate about and love to still due today.  My life is about to take some crazy turns and I am hoping for the best.  :)  And I know most people will want to make resolutions like always, but I know that I won't go through with it.  I love my Dr. Pepper too much.  (I wish I could give up soda)  hahaha.  Good luck to you guys in your 2010 endeavors too.  :D

 "life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain."