 each place feel like home. I was a gypsy with the traveling suitcase.
These annual reflections give me the space to be reflective, to zoom out and view the challenges, the ups and downs, the rollercoasters of each year with a lens of hindsight and gratitude.
2022 was a pivotal year of personal growth. I began the year in Sri Lanka where I had the opportunity of escaping the Northeast winters in the US and work remotely for Vimeo. My work schedule was flipped with a 4pm to 12am schedule that ran on multiple doses of caffeine. I was grateful for the ability to work remotely from my childhood home and foster deeper connections with my family and friends.
Unfortunately, the dream of working remotely from the island ended as Sri Lanka encountered it’s worst economic crisis since 1968. Sri Lanka went through months of power outages, some lasting for over 20+ hours. The country suffered from a foreign currency crisis and was forced to default in April. As a result of cutting costs, the previous government limited supply of basic necessities such as food, petrol, medicines, and gas for cooking. People were struggling to keep their businesses afloat due to a lack of electricity, tourism plummeted due to the economic uncertainty, inflation skyrocketed at an average of 66% YoY in October, and the value of the currency depreciated by 4x. It’s heartbreaking to know that the country you once knew to be home no longer holds that value.
As I moved back to New York, I realized the importance of community. New York is a lonely city unless you have community. I made it a priority to invest in friendships and build meaningful connections. Remote work is here to stay, and as a result, building professional relationships with colleagues was a challenge. I genuinely miss the water-cooler conversations that turned colleagues into friends. I lived in different neighborhoods — from Upper Manhattan to Williamsburg. I realized the importance of adapting to new environments, being flexible when things don’t go as planned, and making the best out of a current situation.
Further embracing the nomad life, I worked remotely from London over the summer and traveled around Italy. As I lived in many different cities and experienced new perspectives, I realized the value of stability, consistency, and community. As I constantly challenged my comfort zone, my identity and sense of home became apparent. Home was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Home was the community I surrounded myself with. Home was my definition of purpose. Home was within me.
I began the year setting out professional goals of what I wanted to achieve by the end of the year.
I quit my job to re-define what a life of happiness, fulfillment, and purpose meant to me. This was the hardest decision I made all year. To choose to leave a job that provided stability in a time of economic volatility and live in the discomfort of future uncertainty.
I applied to over 25 jobs this year, got to the final stages of only three of those positions, only to get rejected by all three. I’ve had multiple rejections and set backs this year. It felt awful. There were days of grief over the painted fantasy of a new job and a new life that got taken away by a rejection email.
I had a linear list of professional goals and met none of them. Not because I didn’t aspire to meet them, but because circumstances changed. I reminded myself that it’s ok when things don’t work out the way you planned. Nine out of ten times things don’t work out the way you think it would. The right things have a way of taking their time and perseverance will only make the journey worth it.
Quitting my job opened up new avenues of professional growth. I invested time in learning and development — I partook in Ascend’s Women’s Leadership in Business program, I taught myself new skills such as illustration, I read books on technology and the future of design, and had the headspace to draft out potential business ideas as a stream of passive income. The one thing we don’t get back is time and quitting my job gave me the time to work on improving myself for the next opportunity that comes my way.
Change is the only certainty there is.
When things don’t work out, trust that there is always a silver lining.
Surround yourself with people that comfort your soul — we are an interdependent species and there’s no better feeling than the warmth of true friendship.
Be true to yourself. Follow your intuition, listen to the unspoken voice of your body telling you what you need.
Know your worth. Leave situations when they no longer serve you. Focus on the people, places, and aspects of your life that provide value and fulfillment.
Give your 100% to the things you want and meaning will follow. Doing things because of society’s expectations will only weigh you down.
Throw the plan away — not everything goes according to plan. Adapt. Be flexible. Ride the waves. Ride the rollercoaster of the ups and downs. This is part of life. This is how it’s supposed to be. The only constants are the ups and downs. There’s no such thing as a straight line in life.
Set inspiring goals and aspire to achieve them.
If you don’t achieve your goals, reflect. What could you have done better for next time?
Be present. This very exact moment will never happen again.
Live. Dance more, travel more, invest in community.
The time is now. Use your time wisely. Communicate effectively, set boundaries, and prioritize.
Life is full of ups and downs. It is a constant rollercoaster. There are days where you can feel on top of the world and there are days where you want to shut the world out. Mindset will navigate you throughout this journey. Enjoy the ride. Live in the present, appreciate the life in front of you.

Professional photography isn’t about gimmicks or tricks. Like any great professional it takes a mixture of hard work, talent, dedication, attention to details, and experience. As an Army veteran, I learned these virtues throughout my years of service to this great country. But it doesn’t stop there. Just like a hairstylist or barber that goes to conferences to keep up with all the latest styles and techniques, I travel the country to learn and absorb any and all information I can about photography. I have studied in-person with some of the best photographers in the business. Being a photographer is one of the most fulfilling things I have done in my life. Day after day, I get to be a part of people’s special moments. How many people get to say that? I believe everyone is deserving of an experience that they will never forget.
Coming in late 2018, my wife and I teamed up to give our wedding clients even more value. My wife Tina is a licensed esthetician that certified in individual eyelashes, makeup, & skincare. We will have wedding packages that provide additional services at a much lower cost. Stay tuned.
10 am - 6 pm via call Always available to communicate via email or text.How to Be Friends With Another Woman
“It’s okay if most of your friends are guys but if you champion this as a commentary on the nature of female friendships, well, soul search a little.”
Rumpus essays editor Roxane Gay has created a helpful guide/manifesto on friendship between women. It’s chock-full of wisdom that touches on both the overarching and more specific themes of camaraderie. (“If your man or woman is a scrub, just own it so you and your friends can talk about more interesting things.”)
While we’re on the subject of lady love, this essay by Emily Rapp is always worth a re-read. PJ Tucker I think can be explained as a victim of circumstance - he’s a 6’6” guy who is guarding centers night in night out and despite being a gifted defender it’s understandable he picks up fouls trying to slow down guys much bigger than him. Gobert is an interesting case and I won’t pretend I’ve watched enough jazz games to really have a good idea how to characterize him in that light. This being said I’m not sure how I would characterize Jokic either - I would definitely want to look more specifically at him compared to other centers in terms of foulsThis week is a proud week. The South Downs SCITT has received the Ofsted report from our recent inspection and we can celebrate our outstanding grade. A recognition of the quality of the early teachers that we have supported into their teaching careers.
The dream started several years ago with plenty of optimism and a drive to have the best teachers for the children in our community at a time when teacher supply is an issue. Back then I was a Professional Tutor and led an exceptional group of skilled mentors. We were aware that we were contributing towards producing some very good new teachers. Two of our associate colleagues at the school approached me to see if we could offer School Direct. That way they could stay at the school and train with us to teach. So I said why not and applied to be a Lead School for School Direct. Over the next couple of academic years, we supported several trainees through School Direct at several of our local schools at both Primary and Secondary level. This was all done through The University of Chichester. The Head of School Partnership at The University of Chichester asked us if we would consider being a SCITT and yet again I said why not! The idea being that we would add to the already strong training by the three Universities in our local area so we could train more local people for our local schools but now we would be accredited to award Qualified Teacher