Introducing, Me!
Hello World!
Today I’m going to give you a proper introduction into my life and some of the history of my twenties.
…okay I just stared at that line for 10 minutes and completely blanked. How do people start these things?!
To begin, I’ll talk a little bit about who I am and how I got here.
My name is Taylor. I’m currently 28 years young and truly loving my upper twenties. My younger twenties were cool - very rowdy, very busy, very social, and very fun. I definitely got my fill of late nights and hungover mornings. I also learned that I can not walk in high heels.
After playing competitive soccer for basically all of my adolescence, I decided to quit playing the sport competitively right as I was met with the chance to play for a local post-secondary school in my hometown of Amiskwaciy Waskahikan (colonized as Edmonton).
Releasing myself from this extremely time-consuming commitment gave me mixed feelings, but in the end I am grateful I did. It opened up a lot of opportunities, giving me more time and energy to pursue other interests of mine that had been ignored or unrealized for so many years (like photography)!
Next, I quit school.
Well, not entirely, and not at the same time. I was in school for Accounting at this same institution because a) I thought I was going to be playing soccer there, and b) because a guy at the Info Week booth for Accounting told me to become an accountant if I liked to travel.
Bro…… why?!
My parents’ excited stares and nods propelled me into choosing an Accounting path. I could see the dollar signs in their eyes!!
In all honesty, I didn’t mind Accounting but my urge to travel was just WAY too big to continue into my third year of that degree. I respectfully left after receiving my Diploma, and convinced one of my good friends to go on a 3 month backpacking trip to South East Asia. The tales and toils of that trip are for another day/post.
That SEA trip sparked a fire in me like no other. By the end of our 12 weeks away, I truly imagined myself living out of a backpack forever, eating street food everyday and changing locations on a whim.
Over the next few years I worked as a server in the restaurant industry and saved enough money to continue to go on adventures. I ended up volunteering in Sri Lanka with turtles, going back to South East Asia and adding in a few more countries that were missed the first time around, and I made a spontaneous move with a new friend to a mountain town in Canada for a winter season.
After all that, I was ready for something a bit bigger.
I got a working holiday visa for Australia and left in January 2016 to live, hike and camp on the small and beautiful island called lutruwita (colonized as Tasmania). This island is such an incredibly special place and truly feels like you’ve gone back in time. (More on lutruwita at a later date).
I had my first Sony mirrorless camera and loved capturing candid photos of my new friends and fellow travellers while we hiked and camped, and danced at various music festivals. The trees and landscape views over there are absolutely epic, too.
After Tasmania, and a bit of exploration of mainland Australia and a less-known country called Vanuatu, I ventured over to New Zealand. I spent almost $9000 in three months living in a van, surviving off of rice cakes and ice cream. Gas is expensive. I travelled all over both islands, mostly to take photos and hike.
Afterwards, I flew to Peru and made my way up north through Ecuador, then into El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.
Unfortunately, I came home to Canada without a camera and with my only spare SD card corrupted. This is a VERY abridged version of a horrible experience and again, I will get into this story at a later date. The moral of this part of the story, for now, is that I had SO many incredible photos that I was so excited to share and feature, and all of them were essentially gone, apart from what I had saved on my phone.
I came home in the summer of 2018 broke as broke could be (think $24 in your savings account), but excited to reconnect with friends and family. My passion for photography was bruised and I would feel physically ill whenever I thought of all the photos I would never be able to look at or share.
Fast forward to October 2018.
I had decided to stay in my hometown for a while and moved in with a friend on the opposite site of the city. Then in January 2019, the Universe and Bumble App aligned to introduce me to my now life partner and fiancé(!?), Isaac, who lived in an adorable little house just two blocks away from the apartment I lived in.
Long story very short, we fell in love and moved in together in March of 2020 (HI, PANDEMMY).
In 2019 I went back to school and completed my business degree, just not in accounting. In 2021 I graduated and am happy to report I have found a good job that pays the bills and has great benefits (commence therapy now pls).
The job is great, and very practical, but it’s reinforcing some things I already knew about myself previously. I want to take photographs! I had this moment of clarity while sitting in my cubicle and staring at an excel spreadsheet where I asked myself the most daunting question of all:
“Taylor, what would you do if you knew you could not fail?”
The answer suddenly came roaring back to me, as if it was the first time I had truly realized it. The voice in my head yelled
“Photography!
You have loved photography since you were a little girl, dabbing a water-soaked Q-tip in the corner of your eye to give the illusion you were crying (cringe). You love documenting moments and finding the perfect angle and seeing the spark in someone’s eyes in a photo! You’ve wanted this forever but you’ve always talked yourself out it.”
I had this overwhelming feeling of knowing that I want need to live a life that is flexible, creative and interactive. I want to connect and work with people on a variety of creative projects.
So now I am here, writing this blog post, living with my love in that same adorable house two blocks away from that friend’s apartment, working on myself and my relationships, and attempting to pursue this dream and manifest a life that feels good and aligned with my deepest self. One that is full of joy and love, and unexpected adventures.
2022 feels like a great year to finally shed all the reasons why not. To release all (or at least some) of the fear and anxiety of “lack” and instead invite abundance, fun, and success to fill that space. That’s what I’m gonna try - and I don’t know, maybe you should too?
Think about it!
Always, thank you for reading.
