Leap of Faith
Moves
On April 5, 2017, I started working with Devin Williams and In The Lab. One year later, I never would have thought that this opportunity would allow me to travel to new parts of the world.
As I’m beginning to write this now (April 8, 2018), I am on a plane coming back from Madrid, Spain.
Spain.
That is so surreal to me. I’m going back home after being flown out to Spain to take photos. It’s hard to put into words just how cool that really is to me. What makes it even crazier is that just last week I was in Atlanta to do the same thing: take pictures.
Last week, I flew out to Atlanta, Georgia with George Nguyen and Devin Williams for the McDonald’s All American Game. That was the opportunity of a lifetime for me. I really thought that Atlanta and the McDonald’s All American Game was the biggest photo opportunity that I have had in these past two and a half years since starting photography. Even sitting here thinking about it now, I can’t even quite fully describe how much that experience meant to me. That was one of the best things I’d experienced in general. I got to meet a ton of really cool people, take pictures, go to a new NBA arena that I’ve never been to, etc. It was just seeing a different part of the world that I had never seen before in terms of location and experience. A really huge thank you to In The Lab and the people over at Adidas. They really took care of us on that trip and made sure we had just as an amazing experience as the players. I can’t express how thankful I am to have been blessed with that opportunity.
If you want to see the entire album of the McDonald’s All American photos, click on this.
Fast forward to right now. Devin and I flew out to Spain and I won’t lie, this trip was exhausting. We actually weren’t even in Spain for more than 72 hours before we had to head back home already. As soon as we landed, we only had a couple hours to settle in to everything and we had to go straight to work. We went to meet with some of the guys from Adidas and went over to the WizInk Arena, where we got to watch Real Madrid take on Brose Bamberg in the last game of the season before the road to the Final Four. Check out Devin’s video on the Final Four from last year if you don’t know what it is.
In the video, Devin talks about the crowd and how wild they are in rooting for their team. In Spain, I thought the crowd was already dope since they were singing the entire game. Apparently, I haven’t even seen half of the real deal. Hopefully I’ll get to experience that live in person one of these days.
One of the cool things about this experience was the fact that I got to take pictures of some ex-Warriors that I grew up watching. Dorell Wright was playing for Bamberg and Anthony Randolph was playing for Real Madrid. It was really dope to the able to take pictures of guys I grew up watching. (Also, in Atlanta I got to take pictures of and chat with Nate Robinson. Hopefully we have more work coming soon as well.)
(Tap to go through some pictures ^^)
Honestly, this trip was way too short to be able to actually see and experience Spain as it truly is, but I’m not complaining at all. To be able to be in a new country and continent because of photography and basketball is truly a blessing. While this may have been a business trip, seeing the world always turns me back into a little kid, fascinated by even the smallest details. On this trip, I actually realized how much more I have to learn. The language barrier was crazy for me. I never took a Spanish class or anything in high school. I literally only had the phrases and words that CJ (my girlfriend) sent me while I was on the plane ride over to Madrid. Although I was struggling out there, experiencing that lack of knowledge was humbling and inspiring at the same time. It’s weird to put into perspective how many people in the world I’m not able to communicate with because of language barriers. I think it’s also really cool that people in a different part of the world will be able to see my photos once I send them over. All of this is just weird for me to think about. Here’s the video that Devin put together from our trip. Shot by Devin and Myself, Edited by Dev.
(Tap again to see more ^^)
Here’s the link to the whole Euroleague Album
A huge thank you to my big bro Devin Williams for allowing me to take part in all of this. I never would have thought that I would be traveling the world to take pictures this early in my “career.”
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The Leap
If you’ve read this far, here’s a huge “announcement.” On February 5, 2018, I decided to change my life for the better. In many other blog posts, I spoke about the idea of school and dropping out of college. I couldn’t be “all talk” for any longer. None of these trips and opportunities would have been possible if I had not decided to take a chance on myself. I dropped out of the University of San Francisco so that I could pursue my real education. I’ll attach some of my thoughts on college here from other posts that I have written:
Views From a 19 Year Old Robot
I was going to make a video with all of this, but I figured that I would just go ahead and write a little bit about it and if I decide to put together a video one of these days, I’ll just add it in here.
One of these days, I do hope to be an example for people to realize that you do not need a formal education to be educated and “successful,” whatever that means. ‘Success’ is one of those things to me that is extremely subjective. One person’s definition of success is going to be different than the person’s next to them and different from my own definition of success.
Although I’m out of ‘school,’ I feel as if my true education is just beginning. After going to school for over twelve years, I kind of figured out that school was just kind of a game. Once you figure out how to play each teacher’s game and fall into their system, you can succeed and get a nice little letter. I didn’t want to keep working for letters, just for a nice little piece of paper that was actually going to cause me to go into debt. I just wasn’t attracted to the idea of going into debt for a piece of paper and spending a portion of my life just to pay that money back with the job that the piece of paper supposedly was going to get me.
More importantly, I felt as if college was wasting my time. Before I continue, I do think there are some benefits of going to college. In college, you meet people who may be your friends for the rest of your life. Your network grows in college and you yourself grow as a person. However, I thought that college was wasting my time because it was taking away from the things that I truly loved to do. I had to stay true to myself and the mission at hand. I feel that if there is any good time to start chasing my dreams, that time is right now. Of course, it is a risk to drop out of college. It’s still weird to tell family, friends, and even strangers that I’m a college drop out. But you have to be your own number one fan if you want things to work out the way you intend for them to.
If there’s one thing that I have always struggled with, it would be the mental side of things. Whether that is depression, anxiety, insecurity, or lack of confidence. I’ll admit, I still struggle mentally every day. Just like any other person. Just like any young adult, barely removed from his teenage years. But this is me taking the leap towards believing in myself more and trusting myself. If I can’t believe in my own mission, I really can’t expect anybody else to believe in it or me. I really do believe that I’m going to make this thing work. I am in my beginning stages right now, but one day I truly believe that I will have my own businesses and photography is going to take me places that I would have never even imagined. In doing so, I know I’m going to make a positive impact on people’s lives one day. Despite the mental struggles, I do believe those to be fact.
If you’re reading this now, you are a part of my journey. Whether we’ve spoken before or not, you are a part of this journey now. Thank you for that. Come rock with me and stay posted on where this uncharted road will take us. Let me know what you think about all of this. You can leave a comment, send me an email, text, DM, anything really. Let’s get connected.
Dropping out of college isn’t going to be easy and I want you guys to see where these roads take me. There’s no blue print for this, so I’ll be making my own along the way. Let this post be me speaking things into existence without explicitly stating all of my goals. One day, I’ll leave a legacy behind. Stay tuned and come build this blue print with me.
Last Announcement: I will be moving to Los Angeles in the next two or three weeks. Why? Well, let’s save that for another time and post. Stay posted.
To Live and Prosper
- JSquared
@_J.Squared
@InTheLabLifestyle