What did you want to be when you grew up?
It’s funny how our ideas of career change as we age.
Some people seem to get it right, they want to be a firefighter or a doctor and they do it. They realise their goals and ambitions early in life and seem to be happy for it. My wife for example, knew from a very young age that she wanted to be a scientist. Sure enough, after working hard through the academic route, Doctor Long received her certificate, as a proud Neil watched from the theatre seating. What’s funny though, is that as her career has progressed, she hasn’t been near a science lab for many a year. Indeed, she doesn’t even work in the same sector her thesis was written about. When our daughter was a lot younger, she was heard at a party once, describing her mum as ‘she used to be a scientist’… Ahh, we still chuckle about it now… well, I do.
And then there’s the likes of me. I had so many career ideas when I was younger that by the time it came to actually being an adult, I hadn’t settled on one path. I’m a dreamer you see, and while some career ideas were simply beyond my physical capabilities (one arm and uneven legs), which meant the likes of pilot, soldier or professional sportsman, were beyond reality, other ideas, like architect, were out of reach because I’m terrible at mathematics. Technical equations just become a blur of symbols and make no sense to me.
But I really liked the idea of being an architect. It was probably the image of Scandinavian architects in the media, with their black roll neck tops and impossibly cool glasses that had me thinking, yeah, I could pull that look off. And I do now and again…
Neil - Not an architect…
Nowadays I capture architectural creations with my camera. To me, buildings and amazing feats of human ingenuity and engineering have souls. They’re living creations, with a purpose in life of their own. Old buildings that have stood the test of time, engineering marvels like immense bridges and today’s ingenious architectural concepts and creations all have a place within my viewfinder that I’ll obligingly capture.
Of course, the other amazing aspect of photography as a career, is that I get to meet many of the gifted minds behind some of the creations I admire. Artists, designers, musicians… and that’s where my love of capturing portraits comes in. I consider myself to be incredibly fortunate to meet these inspiring people, because they inspire me to be better, to be the best I can be in my field.
And so, although I didn’t become the cool architect, I never lost the passion for enjoying a well designed building, structure or indeed many creative achievements. Photography for me has opened many avenues and given access to some remarkable people and places. So if you haven’t yet discovered your ideal career, don’t panic. Karma and fate have ways of showing you a path, maybe paths you hadn’t considered before, but may turn out to be the ideal fit.
As the lyrics to Baz Luhrmann’s song ’Sunscreen’ go : “Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what to do with your life. The most interesting people I know, didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t”…
