Why I quit my lawyer job to be a photographer 🤷🏻‍♀️

From corporate slave to struggling artist 😂

For 2 years I worked as a full time litigation lawyer - going to court, crafting arguments, butting heads with opposing counsel, feeling my blood pressure rise on a daily basis. I did find little things I enjoyed - drafting legal documents that tell my clients’ stories both concisely and with emotion.

But the long hours, relentless workload, never-ending frustrations at work piled up and I found myself being consumed by work, unhappy everyday. I would go to sleep with a list of unfinished tasks in my head, and jolt awake each morning in fear that I forgot to send out an email or submit a document. There was hardly a moment I wasn’t thinking about work. There were days I was so frustrated by the bureaucracy or difficult opposing counsel that my fists would be clenched the whole bus ride home and I’d only realise when I got home by the soreness and fingernail marks 🤦🏻‍♀️

During this time, I had a weekend side hustle as a photographer/videographer. I started small with graduations, then family shoots, then weddings and pre-weddings. It was tiring, especially being at full capacity during the work week, but it was worth it. As a photographer, I was constantly marinating in joyful celebration, surrounded by kindness and love and gratitude. It felt like the complete opposite from my environment at my full time job.

So after about 6 months of struggling, trying to reset my mind (telling myself maybe it’s me! I need to try to appreciate my full time job), I realised that it was time to call it off. So I quit! I decided that life was too short to try to earn a ton of money at a job you hate.

I took 10 months away to live in NZ (more on that later), now I’m back and I’ve decided that I want to be a photographer. I have always loved being creative and telling stories, and I can’t wait for this next chapter. It’s going to be hella tough I can feel it, but if it doesn’t work out then who cares right? I owe it to myself to give it a shot.

Anyway thanks for reading if you made it this far 🤍

#storytime #MyLemon8Diary #mystory #sgphotographer #weddingvideographer #singaporeweddingphotographer