Alternate Title: The million things I have to do when coming back from Maui.
Vacations are great, don’t get me wrong. And vacations to Maui are completely awesome, I can assure you that.
Yet, every time we come back from Maui, it seems like there’s always more work to do when I get back than when I left, and that doesn’t include the usual “day job” activities.
Let Me Explain
Allow me to elaborate. I would consider myself a pretty passionate guy. One that embraces things he enjoys and cares about, and makes them part of my everyday life whenever possible.
And when those passions collide…well, watch out. To further explore this dilemma, check out the profile site I created over at krisnelson.me. That starts to sum things up pretty well, as far as my passions in life go.
You’ll notice that Maui pretty much leads the way on that profile site. Hands down, the majority of what I build online has something to do with Maui these days. Ironic, that we only spend 1-2 weeks there a year. At least for now, that is.
Next up is the photography work, which has really received a shot in the arm over the last few months with the birth of our first child at the end of last year. Photos, much like websites, have their own care and feeding in terms of capturing ideas, processing, and publishing (aka more work).
And then, of course, there is the web aspect that I’m passionate about, which includes publishing content, blogging, and social media. After all, the first two passions would only go so far if I could not express and share them with the masses online, now would they.
When Passions Collide
Imagine, if you will, the joining of all three of these forces at once? Being back home after a week on Maui spent attending a photography workshop and networking with other photographers and social media fans, too. That todo list starts to grow, and grow fast. Wasn’t this supposed to be a vacation, too?
Speaking of todo lists, here’s the grand master plan of things I need to follow up on now that we’re back home.
- Backup and archive all photos taken during the trip from my laptop to my primary computer.
- Publish photos already processed during the trip to my Photography Blog.
- Process any additional photos not yet worked on during the trip.
- Sharing photos on my Photography and Maui Facebook pages.
- Writing journal entries from our trip over at my Maui blog.
- Sharing photos and personal stories of our son’s first trip to Maui on our family blog.
- Writing my recap of the sessions and my experience over at the Maui Photo Festival and Workshops last week.
- Writing a review of the ThinkTank Photo bag I picked up for the trip (and worked very well)
- Share some of the video podcasts I saved on my iPad and watched during our flights.
- Follow up with all the great photographers and their photos that I met during the MPF workshops.
- Work in some of my newest Maui photos from last week into my Daily Maui Photo website.
- …and probably a few other things I can’t think of right now.
Phew, I’m going to need another vacation after all of this. That list doesn’t include the items I was already working on before I left, either.
And…that’s not even including the day job I have to get back to tomorrow. Sigh.
So, Why Bother?
So why do all this extra stuff and push the limits of my sanity? Passion. At the end of the day, I still love this stuff, and it wouldn’t be as rewarding and meaningful to me if everything just sat on my hard drive and was never seen again.
I can’t exactly pinpoint the moment where things just started to feel this overwhelming, but at the end of the day when I rest my exhausted head for just a few hours of sleep, I know that I’m doing things that I really love and am doing this for me. And although none of these things are bringing in buckets of money to fund my habits…er, passions…the relationships I’ve been building and the experiences I’m amassing will only help me further my passions in the future. To that extent, who knows what the future will offer.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Now I have to get back to work. 🙂
– Kris
