Loving community college.
By David Roy
2 June 2008
When I graduated from high school in 2004, I was pretty sure what I wanted to do with my life. I was going to be an engineer. After high school, I went to at Embry - Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL to study mechanical engineering. I have a form of dyslexia called dyscalculia (yes, it's real), that can make clocks, aperture rings, and especially calculus very difficult for me to understand. To make a long story short, I soon found out that engineering was not for me. I did very well in my science and design courses, but when I got to more advanced mathematics, I began to struggle to the point that I could no longer continue. I left school in 2006 and returned to Los Angeles. When I got back home, I was faced with a very important decision: what the hell will I do now? I had always thought I was going to be an engineer, and had never seriously considered any other career. In the winter of 2006, I visited an academic counselor at Santa Monica College. We talked and she suggested that I take photography. I had always been interested in photography, but never considered it as a career. When I began to study photography at SMC, I soon knew that I had found my true calling and passion. Until I got to SMC, I never knew I could enjoy school so much while learning skills that I can use to build a successful and meaningful career. Right now, I am a little over half way though the photography program, finishing up beginning commercial photography. SMC is a great place to be a photographer. The photo department is excellent, with an outstanding faculty. When I'm at school I really feel like I'm getting a valuable education. As I've gone through the program, I've made a lot of friends and some pretty cool photos. Just like when I was at Embry-Riddle, I feel very lucky to have very good professors that really care their students. My presence on JPG is really a tribute to the quality of SMC's photo program. I printed almost every image I've uploaded to JPG in my school's color or black and white labs. After class, I go to the business computer lab and scan them on a plain-old flatbed scanner. As you can probably tell, the scanner isn't the best, but I hope I get the point across. As I learn more about photography, I feel like a new world is being revealed to me. It's a big world, and I have a lot to learn! These are some of my favorite images. All of them were printed at SMC. Go Corsairs!
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