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To Hell With Comfort Zones

Hello, my name is Valette and I don't like stepping outside of my comfort zone.

People who know me think this extremely uncharacteristic. Just ask my mother who will still recount the story of my first semester away at college in the huge city of Fairbanks and refusing to go to the eye doctor -- who was not my eye doctor -- to fix my broken glasses.

I like knowing how a situation will play out. I like knowing what to expect. Which, I think, isn't that different from every other human on the plant.

But sometimes I use it to sabotage myself. To stay in a job I hate, in an apartment that is moments away from imploding, to not make new friends.

I don't make new friends easily. In a very new situation -- new job, new people, new surroundings -- I tend to get very quiet and withdrawn.

Introvert Valette may only be around for an hour or a day, but she's there. And later I hate her for not being as confident as I want her to be.

On Sunday I attended a Flickr meetup. I had intended to go to one a few months ago, but I talked myself out of it. Got myself all worked up over nothing, over a non-mandatory meeting of people whose work I admire.

But I am very happy to have pushed myself to go to this meetup in spite of whatever insecurities were holding me back. This fear of the unknown is completely illogical. I can't solve it with logic, and that bothers me. But I can soldier on anyway.

(Good grief, when did this turn into a motivational message?)

I met some great people, people with whom I have talked online and been jealous of their work. From whom I can learn more about photography. And about stepping out of my comfort zone.

Catch the rest of the set here.