Why I Chose Photography

Next fall, I will be walking the campus of John Brown University, camera in hand, snapping pictures of everything I come across. I dream of becoming a professional photographer who travels the world taking pictures that open the eyes of the public to the ongoing events in the world. In order to get there, though, I will get a bachelor degree in photography at the private Christian college called John Brown University; moreover, I will earn a minor in business and take classes in digital graphics and cinematography to open my range of knowledge in the field I am heading. I currently have knowledge in Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, and Indesign that will further improve my learning experience in college. My portfolio has grown in the

One day, I will have a photography degree, for I am determined to do everything possible to accomplish my dream.

For my elementary and middle school years, I never stepped foot inside a public school and received a public school education; instead, I chose a homeschool education. As a typical homeschooler, I never truly knew how public school worked and how important grades were to students, especially in high school. The summer before freshman year, I chose to venture off to contain a public school education rather than the homeschooling education that I received all my life. At the time, we lived in New York, so I started my adventure in public school in a small high school. Over the course of the first semester, I was faced with the challenge of different knowledge compared to my fellow peers; I knew and understood different subject ideas, but was never taught or knew very little of others. With this challenge, I struggled to obtain decent grades and stay with an A in every class. By the end of the semester, after I transferred to a new school in Oklahoma, I found that most my grades stayed an A, except my math grade which was a C. The realization

Junior year of high school, I decided that I would push myself to the very limits in my English class and chose to participate in AP Language where I would participate in the AP test at the end of the year. Heading into AP Language, I knew I was in over my head and would struggle to succeed on the very first day of school. It is important for an AP teacher to scare the students by talking about the workload of the class and the constant hard work that the class will take; consequently, this form of introduction to the class will allow students to take one last chance to bail and allows those who stay a better understanding of the class. I was one of the students who stayed even though the very first assignment proved to be a challenge. I never took any pre AP classes or AP classes before taking this AP Language class, unlike most of my fellow classmates, which made my experience in the class difficult. I constantly looked up vocabulary that I never know, looked up ways to study, read more chapters than what was assigned, all because I aimed to pass the AP test in the spring. As the year went on, I started to catch up with my class and even became known as one of the smart kids in the class, but deep down, I knew that I still needed to work hard if I was going to pass the exam. However, no amount of preparation could