Kai Kreos Photography: family

Thursday, December 31, 2015

What did I learn this year?

With the year coming to its end it’s pretty usual to start thinking about what did you accomplish this year. What will you most remember about these 365 days? Is it the trips you took, the accomplishments you made, people you met or just these small moments that at the time didn’t seem to matter that much?

What I appreciate the most about this year, is how much I learned about myself and about life. Yes, I am still kind of confused about what is going to happen in the future and what exactly do I want to do with my life, but I feel like I’ve come so much further and am so much closer to achieving the things I have so far only dreamed about.

For one thing, I finally took the leap and came to China. I’ve been talking about coming here for years and everyone said that one day I will do it, but at one point in my life I wasn’t really sure if it’s one of those dreams that is better off to keep it as what it is – a dream – or should I actually turn it into reality.

It turns out that it wasn’t just a dream. It was something that needed to be done, because honestly I feel like every day in here has been a blessing. Yeah, there are days when I feel like I really want to go home and hug my family and friends, but at the same time I feel like I'm surrounded by everything so exciting. Yes, it was tough making myself overcome the fear of the unknown, but I am sincerely proud of myself for doing it.

But in the last few months I’ve been thinking about the meaning of the concept „home“. Is it the place where you were born, where you spent most of your life, the place where you feel the most like yourself of the place where there are people you love?

And I have realized that when you travel around, the concept gets really hazy. Of course, my home will always be with my family at the place where I grow up, but during these past few years I have added several other places to the „List of places I can call home“: Tartu, Tallinn, Morgantown, Beijing.

I’ve discovered that it's the people that make it feel like home. It is the people that you care about and who care about you. So yeah, my real home will always be with my family, but I feel like I also have „families“ all over the world now.

And I haven’t really decided yet if it’s a good thing or not because no matter where you are you will always miss this other family and this other home that you left behind.

But honestly, the year 2015 has given me so much – I’ve had the chance to spend time with my family and friends, I’ve gotten new work experiences, met new people who I’ve grown so attached to, seen the world, traveled, and most of all, enjoyed every single day of this year!

Emme-issi, ma tulen varsti koju, ärge muretsege! :)

And here is my year in pictures.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2014 - The Year to Remember

Do you know the feeling you get just before the year is about to end and you actually feel like this has been a good one? The feeling that you have accomplished so much more that you'd ever thought possible? Yeah, I didn't know that feeling either before now.

This year has has had its ups and downs and well occasionally I fell pretty hard (like literally fell and got a concussion) but it has probably been one of the best years of my life.

I've learned to use every opportunity available and discovered that the only thing that really matters is that you have your family and friends to come home to after having the most amazing opportunity to see the world.

I will never forget the experiences I had while I was in the US and moreover I will never forget the people I met there. And even though I'm so happy I met all of you, I feel so sad that you're all so far away now. That I don't have my sweet Kanami living on the other side of the wall, that I don't have Chris, Ricky, Gizem, Sam and so many other great people I met there.

But anyways, this year has definitely been a year of adventures. I added at least two more cities to my "Favorites" list: New York and Miami. I mean how can anyone not loves these cities?! Plus I visited Washington, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Morgantown, saw the Niagara Falls and I went to Ireland with my family. So you could definitely say I did do some travelling this year.

But it wasn't all traveling and fun. I also had a great opportunity to intern in NATO Cyber Defence Center which was a pretty awesome experience with some pretty awesome people. And more importantly, I took a chance and applied for a job in Estonian Public Broadcast and to my own big surprise ended up working there for three months. So yeah, now you can find tens of articles written and edited by me on the internet. And although there were moments when I felt like I could never do this job for more than a few months, I finally realized that maybe journalism and media could actually be something I could see myself doing in the future.

So yeah, this year I actually managed to keep everything balanced - I was a crazy 21-year-old girl who liked to travel, party and not think about anything serious but then I managed to actually learn, work and improve myself. So I'd say I did a pretty good job balancing my life.

And well, since it's supposed to be a photography blog, here's my year in pictures.