These three teenagers young adults made me blush and turn green with envy – at the same time:
How can you be 19, 20 and 21 respectively and already shoot so many beautiful pictures? The brain sprouts with creative energies. These kids seem to know how to implement their visual gift right. When I think back to 7 years ago, when I was their age once in what now seems forever, I really don’t think I was focused on any of my hobbies, least to say passions, the way they are. Matter of fact, I was still in the process of figuring things out (and some things just never change) and partying my head off. Oh, and not to forget: Going to school, of course.
Well, I certainly don’t know what these three devils do but whatever it is, they sure have enough energy and time to focus on what matters most in their lives: Creating art and experiencing photography. So here is the clique:
The youngest in the crew: Glenda
Who seems to snap some gorgeous family portraits and is interested in a wide array of themes
Then Nicholas: The Fine Art Guru
Who sets out to explore not only Virginia but also many other places and incorporates these into his portfolio.
And last but not least: Kyle
I stumbled across Kyle because an article was featured on, tada, good ole Facebook. He received attention through his stunning and touching self-portraits he took over the course of the past 2 years. Only in the past few months has he gained more and more prominence and now has a vast followship of more than 16,000 people on his social media site.
Needless to say, all three are friends and go on a few photo tours together, it appears.
How great and perhaps even inspiring to see that photography not always comes hand in hand with tons of experience and building out the visual eye aka vision. I believe that this art is one of the few where age does not play too much of a role (be it young or old) when it comes to seeing the subject in a special way and grasping a concept or even pursuing a project. Dedication combined with talent is all that matters. And dedicated they are!
These three make me wish I had discovered my visual interest way sooner. But you can’t turn back the hands of time.Everything is good the way it is right now. We live to love and appreciate. And I appreciate their work!
German-American Abroad 
You sure you have no passions or whatsoever? For Americans, your German is perfect. For Germans, your English is perfect. If you can handle translation or even interpretation very well, you can easily make 60-90K a year at Toronto, Canada. I don’t know about New York though. Everything is supposed to be better at New York. You tell me.
You spent two years away from home just to learn English. Even photographers don’t have that kind of passion. You should be very proud of yourself.
I do have passions. One is writing. The other photography. And then of course traveling everywhere (but I would need more $$ for this one). I do freelance translations occasionally. Unfortunately, New York has a lot of competition (in almost every area). So you actually don’t earn that much off of it. Believe me, I’ve had my strides of frustration because of it. Here you can be happy to earn $15/hour as a translator.
Thanks for your compliment. I actually grew up bilingual, so I’ve been speaking both languages from age 0 (or 1, however you want to see it). You can read more under this blog post:
https://germanamericanabroad.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/on-growing-up-bilingually-biculturally-and-bi-nationally/
I have spent 3 1/2 years in America as of now. You’re right, I should be proud of myself for not giving up 2 years ago and still being here (although for how much longer I don’t know). Maybe I should make a leap and try Toronto. It appears I might have a visa problem there, though. Darn it!
You seem to have a lot of valuable info to share. What is your passion?
Wow, you’ve got a real strong personality that I’ve never seen before. That post you referred to seems quite different from other posts you have here. You’re right that teenage years are the most fundamental to the development of core values such that you even had to make such a great effort to readjust yourself in your twenties by living in America almost exclusively. I don’t know if you are mixing national pride with culture, because culture isn’t really that big if it’s just about food or clothing. Language definitely affects the way we think because of missing vocabularies in certain languages, as we can’t quite think outside of our vocabulary power. There’s always a different way to express the same thing, but having a well-known term to refer to it makes it easier to anchor on an idea. It’s usually very subtle and too small to worry about.
Passion? I like my existence in this world to be valuable and meaningful. Anything goes. Almost. I like poetry, both Chinese and English, and I map their structures. However, I am a software engineer, because making it happen is always more enjoyable than just talking about it.