The Interim Life

Part of the purpose of this blog is to record the logistics of the pursuit of a new career in the midst of life. My hope is that my journey may serve to encourage and inspire you in yours. To that end, I feel like it is worth explaining how I am making ends meet while my new pursuit is still in its fledgling state and not supplying any income.

In certain ways ends are not being met. If you're the type of person who prioritizes a quality credit score and financial stability, my journey may not be particularly inspiring or encouraging. You may even deplore it.

First off I'm married with three children. I lost my job about fifteen months prior to the start of this blog. We shortly afterward moved in with family.

So there's part one: no rent. That's very helpful. Also, in general, there is a lot of grace extended from those around us in the form of free babysitting and school clothes purchasing.

Part two: Bankruptcy. I won't get into the details but over the past ten years we encountered some crummy circumstances and, yes, made a few poor financial decisions and it put us in a tight place financially. After the loss of my job, and without a willingness to go back to a career in education that had become soul-crushing, we filed for bankruptcy. That has (or will when it finalizes) helped with some of the bills.

Part three: Odd jobs. I have a very welcome contract with a search engine evaluation service that allows me to work whenever I want from home that provides a small source of income. In addition, I have in the past substitute taught at schools in the area, though I try to do that as little as possible. I also have a friend with a video production company that sometimes hires me to help out. I have looked into getafreelancer.com, guru.com, and some other freelance job boards, but have found them to be inundated with people looking to hire out at a slave wage; and for the legitimate opportunities, if you don't have several jobs under your belt, you likely won't get chosen for the project.

Part four: Borrowed and gifted equipment. I'm not sure what the value of my photography equipment is, because I have purchased very little of it. I bought my camera used, and it came with some crappy lenses. My father gifted me two better-quality lenses for my birthday, my brother lets me borrow his inherited even-better lenses and three hot shoe strobes, the pastor of our church has let me borrow his light stands, muslins, umbrellas, and various clamps and whatnot from a previous photo business that he had, and the church lets me use a little room for free as a studio. I bought a white seamless paper backdrop and a couple of umbrellas. Besides that, I've invested very little. That will eventually have to change but for now, while I'm in the learning phase, I am very grateful.

The first three allow for feeding kids and having a roof over our heads (maintenance, in other words) and the last part is the main factor in being able to charge forward. If it required much in the way of expenditures to take pictures, I would be moving much more slowly as I would be doing a lot of energy-draining work to afford equipment and be left with little energy or time for the pursuit of photography. I know it's the American Way - work a job you hate because that's just what people do, and try to sneak an enjoyable life into the cracks - but I reject that as my dream. (That's the part you might deplore, by the way, and I get it.)

My hope is that I will be able to use the means my dream life affords to help those who have helped us to get a little Life back into their lives.