Besides learning an incredible amount about in-studio photography techniques, Udo also taught me several valuable things about life. I expressed to him my nervousness about graduating, pursuing a passion, being young, and making the right decisions.
At age twenty, I feel young and old. I feel young enough to make mistakes, but too old to risk making them.
Udo told me that your twenties is the right time to experience change to figure out what you want to do. You're not supposed to know right away what you want to do, and you have to ignore all the distractions in your life-- including your friends and family. Though they have your best interests at heart, "in the end, it's your life, and only yours."
When I asked him how he'd become so successful in such a competitive industry, he answered, "Those who are truly passionate about what they do will make it. If you really are passionate, it will happen for you." It isn't always about being the best-- those who are passionate will be the ones who work until the end and don't give up when the going gets hard. The decision to pursue what you're passionate about is a scary one... but what if it really makes you happy?
The thing that Udo told me that stuck with me the most was this: regret is the worst feeling in the world.
A lot of what Udo said were things that I'd heard very often, but it wasn't until I heard these words coming from the mouth of a man who'd uprooted his life in Germany to live in a completely new country (and in the crazy New York City, too) to pursue what he was truly passionate about-- did they really strike me as words I wanted to live by.
"People told me I was crazy to move to New York," he said. "What made me finally decide to move was when I told myself that I didn't want to look back ten years from now and wonder what would have happened if I'd gone to New York."
Regret is the worst feeling in the world.
And if you fail, you can always go back and start again.
- christine
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