I saw a Tweet the other day that said “It’s ‘How did this person afford this trip to Europe?’ month on Instagram.”
It was hilarious, I felt personally attacked in the best way, and it also got me thinking about my own presence on social media—something I already think about regularly as a photographer.
Over the last five weeks, I’ve been photographing programs for Putney Student Travel and Smithsonian Student Travel as well as leading a Smithsonian program throughout Greece and Italy. I’ve been sharing some of what I’ve been experiencing on Instagram, but ultimately I recognize that what I share is only a narrow sliver of my overall experience.
To put it simply, I can’t afford this “trip”, I’m working. I haven’t had a day off in over thirty days at a time when I’m still recovering from chemotherapy treatment which ended just a few months ago. If you’ve never led a group of high school students internationally, it’s difficult to articulate how all-consuming this type of work becomes.
What you will not see on social media are the back-to-back 18-hour days, the lost luggage, the logging of receipts, the calls to the office, and the questions which become mantras—“Dimitri, where’s the bathroom?” in a space as foreign to me as it is to them and “Can you put your phone away?” just everywhere, all the time.
I want to share this because if I’m going to be part of the mass of people throwing shallow positivity into the world, I at least want to think critically about it and encourage conversation. And to reveal some of what is being left out. I want to be honest about the fact that as rewarding, fulfilling, and beautiful as this summer has been for me, it has been equally challenging and exhausting.
In typing this I also feel the need to acknowledge the place of privilege that I’m coming from. As exhausted as I might be, it’s still an immense privilege to be traveling in luxury to the places I’ve been to over the last five weeks. Even though I am working, I’m part of a very small percentage of the globe that has the opportunity to travel like this. My privilege is not lost on me and my gratitude for the experiences I’m having is something I actively express inwardly and outwardly.
At the same time, while seeing beautiful monuments and sunsets is visually enthralling and awe-inspiring, the most important aspects of my job this summer cannot be shared on social media.
As a teacher, I have the opportunity to actively affirm identities, create space for young people to feel safe as they express their truest selves, push students out of their comfort zones, and help expand the minds of high schoolers. Creating those environments and moments is not easy. It requires empathy, intentionality, and time. As I’m doing this work I feel the importance of what I’m doing, which is what makes it so rewarding.
This is all to say that I’m incredibly grateful for the last five weeks, but it certainly hasn’t been a vacation. Social media is weird and I don’t think we can change that. I think it’s important to be honest and reflect on what we are and aren’t sharing to remind ourselves and each other of the inaccurate reflections of reality that we are all constantly putting into the world. This is my small attempt at doing that.
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I’ll finish this blog post by saying that if after reading this you feel like teaching international photography workshops to high schoolers is something that you’d be interested in or potentially interested in, you should reach out! I’d be happy to share some more info. The company I work for is always hiring each summer and I know they take recommendations to heart.
Hiring doesn’t happen until early next year, but shoot me an email, text, DM, whatever now so I can keep you in mind as hiring comes around.