Samantha Reid
Year-In-Review
Junior Year, 2014-2015
Over the past year, I have learned many new things about photography through my job at Images by Daniel Michael. I purchased my own high-end camera and have learned so much about how to use it and how to correct issues that I have when I am shooting. This has been absolutely crucial to my success at work and has benefitted the photography work that I do both as art itself and documenting my artwork.
The most significant event that occurred over the past year was moving into my own house. I am a very family oriented person and was worried that I would have trouble adjusting to moving out, but so far everything has been great. My parents own the house and my friend and I rent from them, and it is just down the street from my parents’ house so I am still close to home and able to visit a lot. I am also home every day to ether gather supplies or work in the office for Spotless Spaces, so I think that has made the transition a lot easier as well. I am still adjusting to not seeing my three dogs every day and am missing them a lot, but Bella comes over once a week to spend the night at my new house.
One thing I would change about the year is taking the night class that I did during fall semester. The class itself was interesting and I enjoyed the subject matter (art and archaeology of Rome), but the class took up a lot of time and energy and I had a hard time getting excited about going after already having a full day of working and classes.
I have continued to run my Grace Place service project and give back to my community with other girls from McAuley.
One piece of advice that I would like to give myself to prepare for the upcoming school year would be to continue to focus on time management and not to put too much on my plate. I will be keeping the four jobs that I currently have during the upcoming school year, and I will likely begin shooting lead at Images by Daniel Michael which is a lot more time intensive than shooting journalist. I already told Dan that I would like to hold off shooting lead until after graduation in April because I feel like taking on that amount of work while trying to wrap up my final semester of school ever would be too overwhelming.
One goal that I have for myself for the upcoming year is remaining on Dean’s List for both semesters and aiming for straight As in all my classes; I set this last goal for myself last semester and was able to achieve it. I am a little worried about meeting this goal because I know this final year, especially senior thesis classes, will be really challenging.
I plan to again continue my Grace Place service project and pull in a new group of girls from McAuley since Megan and Rachel have graduated.