San Diego Girls Trip and my Video Fail

Even though I handle most of the editing side of our channel now, Steve is the real creative force behind TMWE--he's cultivated a creative mind and is a talented storyteller. I couldn't do TMWE without Steve's guidance and vision.
 
I recently went on a girl’s trip that my mother in law planned. I debated whether or not I should film the trip, partly because I didn't want to be annoying, but also because I've never filmed an entire video without Steve's help. I chose to film the trip and I’m glad I did because it was a real learning experience.
 
Through the process, I've really come to appreciate how Steve is able to look at the whole process of making a video from start to finish. I’ve learned that Good dialogue like the dialogue Steve creates for our videos, really propels the story forward and ties everything together. I hated my dialogue for this video and I ended up cutting most of it. It's a real art and something I need to work on. It was also hard for me to remember to film. There were so many times on the trip when I would think "why wasn't I filming that?!" Or I would start filming something and then I would forget to follow through. Then even when I did remember to film, sometimes I was too shy about it and that got in the way. I wish I had pushed myself to film more. With the benefit of hind sight, I can think of so many little things I could have done to better capture the story.
 
I have a friend who sews the most beautiful vintage inspired dresses. Once I praised her talent and she said "I had to sew several closets full of ugly clothes before I could do this." The concept that failure is a part of the learning process has been a tough pill for me to swallow. It's only in the last couple years that I've really started to venture out of my comfort zone and into the learning/failure zone.  Because of this shift I've learned to do things I never dreamt I was capable of. I've also failed...a lot. I don't exactly relish failure yet, but I'm slowly coming to respect its place in the learning process.
 
Even though making this girls trip video constitutes something of a failure, I'm proud of myself for taking it on. I understand things after this project that I wouldn’t understand otherwise.
 
Psychology researcher and author Brene Brown's work has had a huge impact on me as I’ve grappled with topics like vulnerability, creativity, courage and resilience. She shares a quote from Theodore Roosevelt that I always come back to when I'm feeling warn down from all this trying, failing, learning and going at it again. You may have even seen this quote floating around the internet. I'll Let President Roosevelt wrap this up:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again…who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”