Writing about my journey as a creative has helped me stay humble and appreciate all the things that have happened to me along the way. The good and the evil, because both types of experiences have taught me a lesson and have helped me grow. And my short stay in France was part of that growing experience. Being away from everything and everyone that I knew helped me reconnect with myself. And by reconnecting with myself and listening to my inner voice I realised that the only one stopping me from becoming who I wanted to be was me.
During my French classes I heard the expression “Impossible n’est pas français” for the first time. It means “Impossible isn’t French” and it is attributed to Napoleon. He coined this phrase while trying to encourage his troops to accomplish things that seemed impossible to them. These words and the story behind them resonated in my head like a million bells. I then realised that by labeling goals as “impossible” I was letting my fears take over my future. So I took the phrase and made it mine: “Impossible n’est pas dans mon vocabulaire.” Impossible is not in my vocabulary.
Anyone who has been where I was, not knowing what to do with their life or believing that it is simply not possible to change your life around, can understand what a liberating feeling it was to be able to say to myself: “I am going to be a photographer because I can.” And once you embrace that something changes inside your brain and all of the sudden every single decission you make is a step forward towards your goal. And my first decission was to go back to Barcelona and figure out what kind of photographer I wanted to be.
Do you like what you just read? Consider becoming a patron on patreon.com/jccandanedo where you can learn more about my creative process and the stories behind my images. I’d love to have you as part of my Patreon community.
You can also subscribe to my weekly blog posts here!