It’s been a minute.
I’m embarrassed to admit that it’s been more than 5 years since I’ve opened this window to add a new post. For years this website was such a huge part of my life – a way for me to share my work when I was scraping together a living as a photographer, an outlet for me to tell stories of my travels and adventures, a spot to share my observations and musings. I found a lovely community of readers here, and shared over 400 posts on this website that bears my name. It’s been fun to go back and relive some of them.
For those keeping track, the last you hear from me I was documenting my apartment on Oak Avenue and, as you can imagine, a lot has changed since then.
To start, I’ve since lost my Essie. At 12-years-old, that incredibly smart, sweet and vibrant girl left this world suddenly – only a few months after those photos were taken. Essie played such an important role during that period of my life, and it makes me smile to see her darling face all over this website. She was a special dog and a loyal companion, my perfect little sidekick.
But, in the theme of this post, I have a new sidekick for my current chapter. I adopted Bosley shortly after losing Essie because life without a dog seemed imaginable. While Essie was independent and fearless, Bos is a bit of a baby and would happily curl his long, tall, 60 lb frame into my pocket if it meant he could come everywhere with me. Tall, dark and handsome, Bosley inherited Essie’s love of tennis balls, her athleticism and stamina, and her desire to sleep under the covers. He’s pretty great.
For me, much of the past 5 years was defined by the job that I held during that time. I was hired in April 2019 at Wilson Sporting Goods and worked on the marketing team for the racquet sports part of the business. This allowed me to experience the world of professional tennis in an incredible way. It regularly sent me to Roland Garros in Paris and the US Open in New York, it gave me the opportunity to lend my voice and my talent to a global brand and it introduced me to an amazing team of coworkers that I came to know as friends. Working at Wilson became an enormous part of my identity, so when everything in the company seemed to change suddenly, and I made my exit, it was especially difficult. Half of my wardrobe donned that Wilson script, and Bosley enjoyed the endless supply of tennis balls. I knew it would be an adjustment.
But, upon reflecting on my time in the 9-5 world, I realized that it left very little time and energy to nurture creativity for my own projects, and this area of my life grew very thirsty during that time. I had a running list of stories I wanted to write, images I wanted to organize and share, and adventures I wanted to document. And the longer that list grew, the more daunting it became. I didn’t know where to start, I still don’t.
I’ve been back working for myself since February, with the professional mantra of “freedom and flexibility” dictating my work. To say I learned from my mistakes last time would be an understatement, and I like to think of this as Self Employed Jenn, 2.0. I work as a creative marketing consultant now, writing copy, creating content and helping brands find their voice. It’s also giving me the opportunity to harness some of that creative energy into my own projects, and I’m excited to, once again, be sharing them with the world in this space.
So that’s my quick update, and a bit of a reintroduction. I’m sure that some of you will be surprised to see this site pop back into your inbox, and several more of you will be confused because you’ve likely forgotten all about me. That’s okay, I understand. And I hope you’ll stick around to learn what’s next.
Because I’m back.
Jenn Winter 