{"id":455,"date":"2026-04-12T01:34:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T01:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/?p=455"},"modified":"2026-04-12T01:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T01:45:15","slug":"my-path-was-always-in-my-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/?p=455","title":{"rendered":"My Path was Always in My Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"
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University of Minnesota student Vivienne Paulson photographs the No Kings Day protest in in Worthington, Minn. March 28, 2026. | Photo by Henry Creel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When  academic burnout disrupted my  plans to become a physical therapist, I discovered how sports photography can transform athletic moments into lasting stories \u2014 and why there\u2019s no single path to creative work.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Vivienne Paulson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two semesters of anatomy stood between me and applications to physical therapy school. As a kinesiology major at the University of Minnesota, my life seemed to follow a clear path toward a stable 9-to-5. I worked late nights at a four bedroom nursing home in Brooklyn Park, often returning to campus exhausted with no time left to study for midterms or cook a real dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was already burned out by a future I hadn\u2019t even reached. Deep inside, I knew it wasn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Fall 2023 grades were released, I landed on academic probation with a 1.8 GPA. I avoided telling my parents until winter break forced the conversation. My mom begged to know why I hadn\u2019t shared how much I was struggling. My dad focused on the grades. Eventually, we realized the problem wasn\u2019t just my performance in school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the path itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many students enter college believing careers follow a predictable sequence: declare a major, graduate and find a job. In reality, finding the right path is rarely linear. Meaningful work often requires experimentation, setbacks and the willingness to change direction. About 80%<\/a> of undergraduate students change their majors, a step that can ultimately increase a student\u2019s likelihood of graduating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long before I studied kinesiology, I had convinced myself I wasn\u2019t creative. Both of my parents work at a creative advertising agency, and as a child, I wandered through their offices watching designers build magazine layouts and campaigns. I admired the work, but it felt like a world meant for other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, creativity quietly remained in the background of my life. At 14, I saved enough money to buy my first DSLR camera at the National Camera Exchange. I photographed friends, documented family trips and edited video montages. Photography was a hobby, something I enjoyed without imagining it as a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Physical therapy felt safer. Gymnastics had shaped my life for 13 years, and after tearing my ACL in high school, I spent nine months in physical therapy. I admired how therapists combined science and empathy to help athletes recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But during those months away from competition, I noticed something else. While athletes fought to return to the sport, someone was always documenting the moment. The routines disappeared from memory, but the photographs remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began speaking with local photographers about how they built their careers. Their stories were anything but identical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One multidisciplinary photographer and director, Colleen Guenther,  helped me see that changing direction was normal. Guenther had  switched her college major nearly five different times before finding her path in visual storytelling. It was reassuring to meet  someone with a successful creative career who had felt my  same uncertainty. Her experience showed that exploration is often part of the process, and  her encouragement gave me the confidence to make the leap and pursue journalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlos Gonzalez, who has spent more than two decades photographing Minnesota for the Star Tribune, showed me a more traditional path. Gonzalez grew up in California and studied journalism with a minor in photojournalism at San Jos\u00e9 State University. His interest in photography began in a beginner\u2019s class taught by former photojournalists.Today, his evening shifts often place him at breaking news scenes or sporting events. The unpredictability is what he enjoys most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou never know what you\u2019ll photograph on a given day,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hearing stories like theirs have helped me understand that  photography doesn\u2019t have a single entry point. Some photographers follow clear journalism paths, while others arrive through unexpected turns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My journey has come through the lens of my life experiences.  The first time I photographed a University of Minnesota gymnastics meet, I realized how far I had come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sport looked different through my viewfinder from how it had when I used to watch the meets from the stands or compete myself. I wasn\u2019t evaluating technique anymore. I was searching for emotion. Chalk suspended in arena lights, the split second before a gymnast catched a release move, teammates celebrating after a routine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time, I understood athletics not just as performance, but as storytelling. Photography didn\u2019t pull me away from sports. It brought me closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing majors felt less like abandoning a dream and more like recognizing one that had been there all along. The certainty I once chased in physical therapy had covered a deeper uncertainty about who I wanted to become.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When  academic burnout disrupted my  plans to become a physical therapist, I discovered how sports photography can transform athletic moments into lasting stories \u2014 and why there\u2019s no single path to creative work. By Vivienne Paulson Two semesters of anatomy stood between me and applications to physical therapy school. As a kinesiology major at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazinewriting.hubbardschool.org\/Group3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}