Ticking Off the Bucket List

I started teaching a couple of new sessions at the Light Factory several weeks ago. Whenever I start a new session, I have everyone in the class introduce themselves, tell me what camera they're using and tell a little about why they are taking the class.
I had someone actually say that they signed up for my class as part of their bucket list. This was not an older person, mind you, but they were getting a jump on things.
It's kind of cool being on someone's "bucket list"... Not me, per se, but the act of learning something just for the simple pleasure of knowing something new. I love people like that.

I think when I left TV news to become a photographer, it was part bucket list, part escape from the extreme stress. Now that I've been crafting a new life for myself, I'm not always sure where day to day tasks end and the bucket list to do's begin. I think I'm OK with that.
I mean, with all the responsibility (taxes, health insurance, running a business anywhere but into the ground...) I still have the freedom to set my own course. If I were still in corporate America and the "powers that be" screwed up, I would be at the mercy of faceless upper management. If I screw it up, it's my own fault.... and as scary as that is in this economy, it's just as empowering.

I think I finally feel a connection to my pioneer great-great-grandmother. She built a life with her own hands on the banks of the Yellowstone... I'm building a life with my camera on the banks of the Internet.