"The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings."

-David Weinbaum

Well, I did it. Fall quarter drew to a close last night, marking the completion and conclusion of my education at the Ohio Institute of Photography and Technology.

Last night I entered my school building for the final time as a student, and exited an alumnus. Tried not to make a big deal about it or be all dramatic, but as I stepped out the door and down the steps to the parking lot, I was immediately washed over with a huge wave of realization. There was real gravity in the air. Suddenly my peripheral senses opened up, and the very same world that I'd been looking at through tunnel vision for the last two years began to unfold wide about me in all directions.

The entire paradigm of photography shifted completely upside down in a single instant. I realized the ridiculousness of all my previous worries about doing well enough. Now that I'm on the "other side", I can see clearly that now is my time to blossom, not while I was in school. How had that not been glaringly obvious to me, even merely a matter of minutes beforehand?

The warm-up is over; it's time to shine. I'd been worrying, expecially over this past year, about being a late bloomer, but all it took was to stepping out that door to tear the student blinders from my eyes. School was to learn the basic skills. Now is the time to combine them with my vision and ideas, and let the mix start reacting, bubbling, and fermenting into a heady brew.

Shakespeare wrote: "Why, then the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open."

Indeed.