Joseph Jones:
CLASS OF 1989
T. C. Howe High School 420Class of 1989
Indianapolis, IN
Forest Manor Middle School 554Class of 1985
Indianapolis, IN
Joseph's Story
Wow, 20 years. It's amazing to think that I've been out of school longer then I was in it. The older you get, the faster time goes by. When I was young, I gauged time by the six weeks in between grading periods. Now, I find another year goes by in what seems like no time at all.
Since high school I have done ALOT and traveled across America. I went from high school directly into the "work force." I stumbled into professional portrait photography, and found out that I was pretty good at it. It was on-location so it took me all over Indiana.
By the time I was 22 years old, I realized that I didn't want to be in Indiana any more. I didn't know where I wanted to go but,I knew that I just did not want to be in Indy anymore. I met my best friend, Todd Shumway, who was newly out of the Navy. He told me about a beautiful place where he was stationed...San Diego, California. He wanted to go back there to live and I just wanted to go somewhere other than where I was. So, we packed up my little automobile and we trecked across the country with only $550 between the two of us. It's amazing that we survived a week but, we actually did pretty well.
Before this trip I had only been as far as St. Louis so, after about 4 hours every thing that I saw was new and exciting. I saw the desert, my first palm tree, and finally the Pacific Ocean. I was in love with my new surroundings, not to mention that San Diego is one of the most beautiful places in the U.S.
I didn't go there with a job (oh, to be young and brave again) so I desperately searched the classifieds. I found a job description for a full-time, on-location, professional portrait photographer. I answered the add and found that the company consisted of only one man and one woman who were engaged to be married. She was a make-up artist who owned the company and he was a marketing genius. They had booked several accounts for a photo shoot but, did not have anyone to actually take the pictures. Fortunately, this type of traveling photography was exactly what I had done in Indiana. They hired me with a hand shake and a promise that if I helped make their company successful that they would "take very good care of me." They let me choose the type of equipment that I would like to use and design a mobil photo studio that would work specifically for their needs. After the...Expand for more
first few photo shoots they saw that the company was going to be very profitable, and they completely kept their promise to me. I worked tremendous hours and traveled all over southern California but, I was compensated very well. I couldn't have wished for a luckier break.
After 8 years the company had expanded from the original 3 people to just over 100 employees, our own fully functional processing lab and a permanent studio in La Jolla CA. That's when I got burnt out with the long hours and the extensive travel required so, I decided that I really wanted to do something else. I discovered that I didn't know how to really do anything else but photography. That's when I realized that I needed to go back to school. I decided to go into nursing and enrolled in a local college. I had been away from school for so long that I was scared that I might fail. I wasn't a great student in high school. I did just enough to graduate, and I always had lots of excuses. I wondered if I was just making excuses to cover up the fact that I really wasn't very bright. However, I found that over the years I really grew up and I was studying something that I am very interested in and excited about. Not to mention, I was now paying alot of money for my education too. I worked around my school schedule and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. After I graduated, with my nursing license, I immediately started working for an established hospital. While working as a nurse I continued my education, getting other certifications which included telemetry monitoring and my EMT certification.
Two years ago I moved to Florida to take care of my mother. I found out that she had cancer and was unable to work and needed help to take care of herself. I packed up, put most of my things in storage, and moved to Clearwater, FL to help take care of her. Fortunately, after intensive chemotherapy and radiation, she has recover and is doing very well. Once she gained her strenth she decided that she wanted to move back to Indianapolis. She ended up talking me into also coming back. During the time I was in FL my friend, Todd, decided to move back to Indy too. I have been back in Indy for about 1 1/2 years now. Todd and I live together in a nice apartment downtown.
Well, that's my last 20 years in a nut shell. If you'd like to know more, just send me an email.
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