A Moment's Notice

This last weekend my eye scanned the Calendar section and I thought I saw a man with long hair in a photo. At closer look, it's Annie Leibovitz. Oh. I read the article about her financial problems and truly wonder what she's going to do. Apparently, she over extended herself by buying a piece of real estate that needed a ton of work, and in so doing, caused a legal problem with the neighbor, and tons of money was thrown into that mess...on and on.
In the meantime, her long time companion died and left Annie with the kids. In trying to ease her money situation, she got a line of credit using her photographic work as collateral. Yikes. Imagine, all her work could be owned by someone else? The article outlined other celebrities who have needed to do similar actions and it just made me think how complicated wealth can be.
It also made me remember a moment's decision when I was about 17. I always call it my "I Could Have Been Annie Leibovitz Moment." I use it to remind myself to follow my heart and my passion to make a decision instead of someone else's off-handed remark.
It was class registration time in high school. We used to have to "run" for classes. And my first try at it was a lousy, unorganized, sweaty mess. We actually needed to go to the classroom to sign up for that class in the allotted period of time. We really did run from class to class. That happened twice a year. I got really organized after that first horrible experience of wearing my nice new outfit and new (tight) shoes to run around the campus, looking for the right room, spilling pencils out of my notebook and getting stuck with my least favorite classes.
After two years, the school reorganized the sign up process, and made it in the auditorium with tables replacing the classroom and kindly, motherly types processing the intake. Except, the motherly type that looked at my class choice of photography, held the card in her chubby hand, lowered her glasses, lifted her chin and said, "only boys take that class." "Oh," I say, "I guess I shouldn't take photography, then." I don't even know what I took. How dumb and weak of me. If I had taken a second and analyzed her statement, I should have signed up joyfully. I was a complete and utter boy crazy teen! What was I thinking? I do always wonder how taking photography in a high school class would have changed my life. I did learn that "I Could Have Been Annie Leibovitz Moment," and passed the information on to my Sonny boy, and for that matter, anyone else who will listen. I don't believe in "bail outs," so I sure hope Annie is clever for this life changing moment in her life.