I’m 26 and changing my mind about life again.

So I am still young. I still have years. But I’ve already changed career paths twice. Now I’m thinking about a third.

I grew up with a family in the restaurant business. Mom, worked there, dad on the weekends helped around, grandparents owned it, uncle ran the kitchen. So in turn I was around food a lot. From a very young age I had in my mind that I wanted to be in food service. Oh boy was I wrong. Little did I know that working in a kitchen is kinda awful. Like really awful.

I did the whole going to school thing and becoming a top notch chef. Again at least I thought. By culinary school I mean two year of vocational school or trade school as I think some places call it? With that I was out on my own.

I got my first kitchen job right out of high-school. A breakfast and lunch place on the beach. It got me started, on a path I thought I wanted to be on. I started out as a dishwasher. Forced to scrub dried egg yolk off of cheap plastic plates. After two weeks, boom promotion time. Got myself moved to big boy toast station. Now you may ask, “Zach, what is the toast station?” Well, well, well, let me tell you all about the wonderful world as a toast bitch. so order would come flying in and what would I do? Id make the damn toast. Drop in two pieces of whole wheat let it toast up and butter it up and plate it. Super hard I know.

So now picture me 17 toast extraordinaire, running a kitchen (not really but I mean power and a promotion gets to you) dropping toast and sending orders out left and right. I was on top of the world. Nothing was able to stop me. Towards the end of summer I was able to move into an actual kitchen role. I moved from the summer beachfront location to the permanent in town all year round store. I was still living large 18 now, new car, new job making bank, doing what I loved and with some great people. Now fast forward four more years, and this is where I quit.

I ended up taking over the kitchen after the main chef quit. That lasted all of one summer for me. Not cause it was too much work or that I didn’t want it. I quit cause of bullshit, high school drama the owners caused with my team. Here I was now 20 years old, running a kitchen. Making a schedule and being in charge of people. I definitely made some dumb decisions but also tried my best to consult the team and we made decisions as a team. Now what my boss didn’t like was that. They hated that we were all pretty interchangeable and could make decisions on our own. They took that as a power trip. I did not want to deal with that. So eventually when I had enough i quit gave them a months notice. And within two weeks ended up not being able to take it anymore I left. Like a bad breakup. But ever since then. Man has life been crazy.

So now that cooking is out of the question. I decide to jump headfirst into being an artist. I got my first camera from my aunt for Christmas one year and from there it was all downhill or uphill, I don’t really know. But that was the start of my passion. That was the start of doing something I love and attempting to turn it into a career. Since I got my camera I knew that I wanted to make this into something to do with music. So I tried to combine my love for music and love for photography, I snuck my camera into small venues and small shows to take photographs of the local bands. In doing that I was able to build a portfolio out to use that to apply to different bigger magazines to be able to get into bigger shows.

I built a small following sub 1000 but still a following. I made a name for myself. Got some photos published in Alternative Press and even made it on an album cover. Things seemed promising. I was doing show after show and still felt like I was getting no where. Looking back at it from a professional standpoint I really wasn’t. I was doing better but no where near what I wanted to achieve. Bigger and better while more fun didn’t bring me any closer to leaving the culinary world that I was stuck in and attempt to make it on my own as a photographer. No one wants to pay a photographer. Who knows why. But its awful. Any normal job or trade is like okay well yes. You give me goods and services and I will give you money but no when your taking photos its all for exposure and “this job will get you better jobs.” But Janice. That fucking job taking picture of your child won’t pay my bills for the month. And I get it you can take the photos on your iPhone, I can too. But just because you have a nice camera doesn’t mean the photos will be nice. Having a nice camera doesn’t really mean shit. BUT, I’m getting carried away here.

So years go by and I don’t really advance far. I get better but my wallets stays empty. I miss all of it, the rush, the grind, the satisfaction of capturing a moment for the world to see.

This brings us to the next part of my life were I said well photos aren’t going to get me anywhere, but I still would like to be able to use a camera in my day to day life and my career. Filmmaking I thought. Now I didn’t want to be any old filmmaker. I didn't want to work on big Hollywood sets or in TV production. I wanted the indie life. Making music videos, documentaries, short films. Things were I have total control over it. Its my vision and my creative reigns. So I went to school? Got a film degree online from Full Sail and like made it happen. made films for school but now outside of that we are living in 2020 Coronatine and man does it suck having someone creatively control you. So being stuck at home, unable to make films and go out and be creative got me exploring my other options and other hobbies I’ve put off in the past.

I got into coding WAYYY back when and never took off with it cause I had the mindset that I would never be good enough for that. Or that I would never be able to make it. But since then I’ve made two iOS apps and have started learning new languages. But I think going forward its going to be the move. I still want to make YouTube videos and travel. But looking into it more, I would need a stable income that would allow me to do the things that I want to do. Travel and making films about living through out the world still needs to produce income. So I’m thinking the goal is to get into some sort of nomadic position where I can work remotely and from anyplace in the world. That way I would be able to make my videos, travel and not have to stress about making my only source of income YouTube and online content.

I wanted to get these thoughts out so that other people can feel like their not alone and that its also never to late to start something, and or change plans for anything if you want to better your life. I hope these words can inspire you and cause the spark inside you that will ignite the flame like someone else’s did for me.

So come follow me on my journey as I start my YouTube Career as well as learning everything I can possibly learn about programming.