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Nobody Actually Knows What They’re Doing

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Hi, I'm Erin!

I am a photographer passionate about the outdoors, meaningful travel, creativity and intention in all things. I hope to use my platform online to show the beauty and complexity of the world we live in, and to encourage genuine connection to the world and all the magic within it.

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One day in December 2014, I sat on my parent’s couch and started a blog. Not long after that, I started calling myself a blogger, even though I didn’t fully believe it. I wondered when someone would call me out. When would people notice that I hadn’t been doing it that long? That I didn’t have experience? That I wasn’t that good at it?

Surprise, nobody has ever called me out for not knowing what I’m doing.

That’s because nobody else knows what they are doing either.

We tend to forget that over the course of our existence, we– humans– have made up every single rule for what we are “supposed” to do with our lives, what we are “supposed” to wear, who we are “supposed” to be.

Why can’t you make up what you are supposed to do, who you are supposed to be? You can and you do, every single day.

We are all just making it up as we go along. Nobody cares what you call yourself– if you want to be a baker, start baking and call yourself a baker. Nobody is going to question it.

It is a massive lie that anybody knows what they are doing. If you think I have this life thing dialed in, you’re wrong– I am learning every day, and for everything that goes right, there are ten other things that go wrong. I laugh and I move on, because dwelling and sulking is a shitty option.

We are all just at different levels of accepting the unknowns of life.

We are all at different degrees of accepting and inviting future challenges that we can’t yet name. No one is born knowing exactly how to be what they want to be or how to do what they want to do. All of your heroes figured it out as they went– they all changed their direction as they were moving.

What I do know is this: I want to live deliberately and with passion, and I want to encourage others to live on their terms too. There is nobody on this planet who lives vulnerably and simultaneously feels like they have it all figured out. Anyone who tells you they have it all figured out is smug and closed off to learning.

We may never feel exactly, perfectly confident in our direction. Be okay with not knowing. We all figure it out as we go.

Feature photo by Ali V.

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Hey, I'm Erin.
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If you’re interested in travel, the outdoors, artistic expression, or want to learn more about photography, you’re in the right place. I’m an adventure trip leader turned photographer, passionate about learning & sharing the real stories from the places I visit (real or imagined).

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