What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

As a college instructor, I tend to dish out a lot of advice—whether it’s career, ethical, life, journalism or course related.

Hopefully, some students walk away with at least one decent piece of advice while others, most likely, are not listening.

All of the giving has made me think about advice that I’ve got. Honestly, only one stands out and I have no idea who gave it to me or when it was given.

It goes like so:

“What’s the worst they are going to say? No?”

For me, this is the best advice I could have ever gotten. I’m always worried about bothering people or being in the way. And seriously, what’s the worst that could happen?

I’m not afraid of the big N-O, I’ve just always worried about making people mad or looking like a jerk.

In my carrier, you can’t worry about that.

As a journalist/ photojournalist you’re going to get looked at like you’re selling dead kittens, get told no constantly, yelled at, ignored… the list goes on. I even had someone run away from me once. Yes, run!

You have to be made of steal and you have to laugh it off. You can’t take it personally and you can’t let yourself get jaded about people.

Yet, to this day, if I have to make a cold call or walk into a place unannounced and ask if I cant take pictures, I get a tight feeling in my chest. Sometimes I even procrastinate before getting on with it.  I don’t know why or if it will ever go away.

In the end, I always pull the Band-Aid and it never hurts as bad as I thought it would. Because, what’s the worst they’re going to say? No?

-Steph

A Short Picture Book

Once upon a time there was a kitten named Pippen.Pippen was sweet and cuddly.

As Pippen grew older, she become more and more playful.

One day, and for many days, a big bad wolf teased Pippen so much that she became mean and nasty. She is now known as "That B."

Just as every other time her mother tried to walk through the living room, Pippen rolled around and began to grab at her mother's feet.

To avoid getting grabbed and bitten by Pippen, her mother took a small leap and *BAM* -- ended up smashing her leg on Pippen's window seat.

Now Pippen's mother is left with a big, painful purple bruise on her leg.

And while you may think "That B," Pippen's mother is actually contemplating smashing a bolted, heavy peice of wood into the big bad wolf's leg.








Moral: Watch where you're going when trying to get away from attack cat, and don't allow your husband to torture said attack cat; it just makes her more nasty.


Julia