"Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner." ~Author Unknown
As I come upon my last week here at Cedar for the summer, I start to reflect on what has happened and what I've become in my short 2 months here. First of all I should explain that looking back upon a summer is hard to do. To try and remember all the details and events that have happened up to this point in time. But yet when you add Cedar Campus to that equation it becomes difficult for you to remember what you did yesterday or even what day yesterday was. When at Cedar the days of glory blend together to not make up a summer, but to make an experience.
Working at Cedar Campus has been a wonderful decision for my life. Not just because I got to work taking pictures of everything, not just because I got to live on lakefront for a few months, not because the friends I've made are freaking fantastic and it's not because it's the place I've met my current boyfriend. This decision to work here has a much higher relevance to my life. It has been one of the best decisions for my life because I got to grow in my faith with God, and start to discover who I am in Him, through Him and with Him.
As I've gone through life I've been called an employee, a student desk worker, a babysitter, a ticket taker and seller, but never have I realized that that isn't who or what I do. Well, okay it's what I do for a job at that time in my life, but it's not how I normally define myself. When working here at Cedar this summer, I've been getting a different view on life, my life especially. Now I want to say that when working at Cedar I am on crew. I am part of crew and will be addressed as crew from day one to my last day here this summer. Nothing about that will change. However, when asked what I do on crew, my answer has evolved. It's always interesting talking to families when asked that typical question: "What do you do on crew?"
I will demonstrate a typical conversation I have when eating dinner with a family I've just met.
Camper:"What department do you work for on crew?"
Me: "I'm actually the camp photographer for the summer."
C: "So you get to take pictures of everything that is going on here?"
M: "Yes."
C:"Is it just for this week or have you done this all summer?"
M:" All summer."
C: "Really!?"
M:"Yup."
I don't know how many times I've gotten to explain to families that I take pictures, here at Cedar, all summer long. It's been interesting. I usually respond gracefully as if they haven't understood I'm the photographer yet, even if they've seen me around camp taking pictures already. But what I want to say is that even though I say this to them, I'm starting to realize that it hasn't internalized yet. I mean this is really my first job, being hired specifically for my profession. I know my professor is guiding me and telling me that I am the photographer and I'm able to get into everything that is happening, but deep down I have been lacking something.
Now as this summer is winding down for me, well mainly here at Cedar I am starting to see, finally, that I have to wise up and learn that photography isn't a hobby anymore. It's not just what I like to do or just a gift God has blessed me with. I need to realize when I am getting people asking me to take pictures for them, and I'm working for a camp that, in all reality, no matter what the world's opinion is on my work is that I am a photographer.
" We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully." ~Romans 12:6-8
