The Career I Never Planned and the Classroom That Found Me

Being both a professor and a photography business owner means fall is doubly insane, but such has been my life for what feels like forever. If I did the math right, I just turned in grades for my 46th semester. Wowza! I suppose that explains why I now find myself sitting in the front row of faculty at graduation. Long gone are the days when I get mistaken for a college student.

For nearly half of my life, I have been teaching students how to become better photographic artists and journalists. There aren’t many things I’ve done for that long, though my roles as a mother and entrepreneur aren’t far behind. Neither teaching or owning a studio was ever part of my grand plan. While earning my Media and Theatre Arts degree, I dreamed of being a photojournalist and traveling the world—because really, who doesn’t imagine themselves as a National Geographic photographer at some point?

As always, God had much better plans.

I remember the moment clearly. I was Editor-in-Chief of The Montana State University Exponent, sitting at my desk—which, incidentally, had the best view of the Bridger Mountains anywhere on campus. I still miss that desk for the view alone. Eric walked in with coffee and news: Bethany Lutheran College wanted me to teach photography the following semester.

What?!

I had never considered teaching, and I couldn’t imagine how one could teach photography without a darkroom. As it turns out, there was one—hidden away during my own student days—which explains how my film magically came back processed after handing it to my yearbook advisor. I was on a photojournalism scholarship and co-editor of the yearbook and never even knew it existed. I will say, as the yearbook advisor for the past 20+ years, I’m so grateful I have not had to develop hundreds of rolls of student film!

The original plan was for both Eric and me to teach at Bethany in the fall of 2002. Instead, I returned to Minnesota alone while he finished his PhD. It was far from ideal, but since I had no idea what I was doing, I practically lived on campus anyway. That first semester, I taught five lab sections just to fit all the students into the tiny darkroom, so we both worked nonstop in different states for five months.