Where's Javi?

A donde vamos? Or more like a donde voy? 

This year has been quite challenging. Between juggling having a day job, freelancing, and self-care. At the end of the day, I am left with the same question that has been taunting me, where am I going? 

The reality of it all is I don't know. Up to this point I have lived by my personal philosophy, keep the ball rolling and things will happen. To an extent, it has worked and I have found success since having graduated from college. I have cultivated a community here in Austin. I have been part of International social media campaigns. and have made advancements within Apple. But there's always a but... Jumping from one project to another had been a great way to cover the underlying question of where am I going? 

For the past three months, I have taken a step back. Something that seemed counterproductive. I co-hosted the Latinx Creative Meet with Jeanette Nevarez and dropped off after that. We hosted an event that brought together the Latinx creative community.  The amount of feedback we received was beyond what we had hoped for. Feeling good and on a high note. I decided to cut back on my engagement on Instagram, limiting how much I posted and the amount of scrolling I did.

Breaking away from Instagram was huge, but fuck Y'all... It was definitely time. After several years of building my platform and doing partnerships with brands. It started to feel a bit odd. Less like me and the pressure to post seemed to only get higher. How many likes am I going to get? What time should I post this? Is this image going to throw off the feed? Can I be myself? Do people even care? Do I care? 

At this point, I have decided to make a jump back onto the gram. So, I'm back in. I recently hosted the Summer Instameet through IgAustinTexas and the turnout was dope. I'll share more about that in a later post. During my hiatus, I was able to travel to Chicago and took some photos while I was there so I hope Y'all enjoy the pics. But more importantly, this opportunity helped me think. I came back feeling energized and ready to get back on. 

Even though I'm not quite sure what I want to do next. I know. I'm good at photographing, facilitating meetups, and have an eye for curating. So, let's see where the rest of this year takes me. 

If you read this you're the real mvp.

-Javi