When I grow up...

"When I grow up I want to be an astronaut!"

Or at least that's what I thought when I was in grade school. That was my answer to the big life question that we were already supposed to have the answer to... at age six. Since birth maybe. I remember it now; coming out of mom, seeing the world for the first time, and thinking, "this is alright but I want to go up into space!"

A few years later I had to get glasses, big nerdy blue frames. My dreams of being an astronaut were shattered. All was still well, I was going to be a professional soccer player! In High School I tore my ACL and had to have surgery, another dream shattered... well... actually I am not sure I was really ever good enough anyway so really it just gave me a valid excuse for why I couldn't make it.

Somewhere along the line my High School Calculus teacher caught me drawing in class. Despite the fact that it was a pretty true to life picture of her, glasses and wrinkles included, she seemed quite impressed and began to put my artistic talents to use. Long story short I ended up an Architectural Engineer and I started my real job in the real world.

Sure, I took pictures even then... but mostly of cracks in concrete and water damaged wood. I started trying to think of a more interesting way to capture cracks, a way to get better light or more variety. But all the cracks started to run together. It was then that I realized something...

No, it's not what you might think. I had no idea I wanted to be a photographer. What I realized was that I was bored. So I did what any rational person would do. I quit my job. It really wasn't as simple as that, but for times sake let's say it was!

For the first time in my life, I suddenly had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. It was refreshing! I knew I wanted to work with people and that I wanted to make them happy... but that was as far as I got. Luckily I had some things to keep me busy, I had a wedding to plan. But one can only plan their wedding once and then they need to get a job.

A couple of photography related things happened...
We hated didn't like our wedding photographer. Our fault, we knew better. We gave matted 8x10s as wedding favors to our guests. They were pictures Marc and I took, but mostly Marc. People loved it, they even fought over them! Suddenly I saw it, a way to make people happy! And once we were married, "what's mine is yours, right honey?" So I used Marcs talent to build a business and now... here I am! Brenda Bergreen of Bergreen Photography, a husband and wife photography team!

And once again I know what I want to be when I grow up...
HAPPY!