Oh hello perfect campsite.

Fortunate is not even what I would say I am. I mean, I am fortunate, but it's a word that runs much deeper than that. Summer is the time where my chosen field of work thrives and not being a salaried employee never tastes better.

I don't know that many people know what I do exactly and it's hard sometimes for me to explain. In fact, that was the main reason I kept this blog up after it started as a college extra credit assignment in Steve Manuel's photojourn class... believe it or not. I wanted to try to explain through pictures and words that your life could be whatever you wanted it to be if you worked hard, played hard and were respective and kind to people along the way. That there was nothing, save yourself, holding you back.

If you take a look back at this blog, from my first non-project-based job out of college in Asia up to now, you will absolutely see that all of the above has been true to what I believed I could accomplish. I had tried to explain in conversation once that "paying dues" didn't necessarily mean getting some CEO coffee and making copies, and the party with whom I was speaking replied, "What, so you think you are above paying dues?" "Absolutely not," I said, "I just want to pay them differently." With a shake of my head in disappointment in my explanation or in his understanding, I now have tangible proof through this silly little blog that dues have been paid (and are still being paid) on slightly different terms and that anything is possible with enough knowledge, motivation and comprehension.

A point in April of this year was my once a year, what-the-heck-am-I-doing? moment. I was watching things, people move and shake around me, and while I still had my hands on the reins, there was plenty of slack in my palm and I really wasn't sure why. How do you go from a jam-packed, three-month gallop on an Arabian Stallion to the slow trot of a Clydesdale in practically no time? I didn't even remember a graceful dismount! Sharing my concerns with one of my most trusted in New York, I merely got this is return:

"Take a step away from the edge, Ms. Harvey."

So I did. I had a look back over, stepped back and reassessed.

In a roundabout way, after a wonderfully long Monday night at a Grammy event at the Hard Rock, that's how I found myself on Assateague Island in Maryland early on a Tuesday afternoon with a $20 tent from Wal-Mart...