The specific relevant content for this request, if necessary, delimited with characters: This to me is, in my opinion, the ultimate as I’ve said many times. If I had the chance again, here’s what I would’ve done: I often tell my grandson, “Mate, if you can stay in school for as long as you can because a good education can help set your life up better.” with the future of work and life it’s self.
I regretted anything, it was not doing the right thing at school. It didn’t start well as my parents took the whole family to three months, which I remember very well as I was 12. So, with the start of high school, I was put in the basics as I didn’t take the last exams in year seven. I could say it didn’t go well; half the class couldn’t care a fuck and the other half was too scared to move. Lol, so yes school is the first on the agenda, I went back to Uni at 50 years old and got my year 12 which I’m so glad I did, the hard way but the good way if that makes sense.
As I get older, there will be a few years I’d like to relive – in the year 1988, I went to college and got a diploma in photography. I spent a year taking photos of sports and put together a portfolio. I approached a major sports company to say, “You need your in-house sports photography.” The first one I knocked on the door of was the Wildcats. They gave me a season to prove myself. 10 years later, I was signing a new contract with them, and also with the Perth Heat, Western Reds, Australian Cricket, Australian Cam, Surfing World, Rip Curl, Channel Nine, and Ten. The list goes on. It was a full-time job and it brought our first house and looked after a family of four.
In 1998, my wife and I went out for tea to celebrate the new contracts that I signed, and the new ones I picked up with sponsors, magazines, and major companies like HBF, Puma, and AGFA, with Nikon coming aboard. I picked up the kids, drove into the driveway, and noticed the lights on and the front door open. I walked into the main room where I had a hidden door put in, with all my gear in two bags worth over $50,000 gone. Camera bodies and lenses ranging from a thousand to as high as twelve thousand dollars were gone, just disappearing into thin air. It turned out that it was my best mate at the time who I didn’t know was a heroin addict and one of three people who knew where my camera gear was. I never saw him again.
That was an instant end to my sports photography, as I couldn’t replace that sort of gear to be at the top of that field. To say it destroyed me was an understatement. At the time, it nearly cost me my marriage to lose everything that took me years to build up as a great business and lifestyle. Working as a sports photographer was a dream come true in so many ways.
There are a few other things that I wish I would have done better or a few years that could have been better, some through no fault of mine, or some that I made a choice, took the chance and went with the change, which didn’t work or was okay. I’d say most of us have done or had a year that we wish could have been different, but it’s all a part of growing up and one that gives us a life of experiences that we use as we grow. If I think about it seriously, life has been pretty good, gone through ups and downs but still going strong and have many years to re-live or re-change to make my life as good as I can. I love the idea that in the mind I’m still young and still have dreams and ambitions, so life is pretty good.
#Journey Through Life
mags64@journeythroughlife.blog
Journey Through Life... 