I take pictures. I don't really know why I do it. I remember this time back in college; We had this mandatory photography class, "Photography A". I guess the A constituted "Photography - A simple course to get through."
I remember the first day; after 30 minuets I was - less than eagerly - shaking this large container; "cleaning the film". Although we hadn't really taking any pictures, which made the whole process pointless. But I guess you had to be a little indulgent to peg down the habit. I never went back to that class; Of course during that period in my life I still had an arrogant perception: I never had any trouble with classes, I more or less relied on my personal ethics and principals rather than grades. Many years later I've come to the realization that opportunities don't fall into your lap, even though you'd like to rely on that. Don't get me wrong, I still abhor most social norm, but all I do now is to sleep in; a modest demonstration, but still enough to retain some sort of independence... Where was I? Okay, the photography class didn't do it for me. It didn't help that our teacher had a big beard and controversial clothes; These quirky pseudo norms made it impossible to actually consider it interesting. I thought to myself "Will I end up this pretentious if I get on board on this thing? Dig it man, dig it."
So, heres the story so far, college gave me a warped view on what photography really meant ( one of many things that were missrepresented in college ).
Fast forward. I have this internship - along with one of my best friends Martin - at an it company ( I guess you could label it ).
A lot of idle hours: we spent most of the time playing with various toys that was laying around and eating junk food from MickeyD's across the street. Good times. Anyway, one of the toys in our possession was your run at the mill compact digital camera. We went down the halls taking various pictures of doorknobs, computers, chairs, pretty much your basic undeveloped juvenile perception of aestheticism. ( "Crap". )
I remember Martin looking at my pictures and laughing at the result (bad shutter, unsteady hands, the usual ); not out of spite, but just a harmless reaction. Or so I thought. ( Dah-dah-daaaah! )
A few weeks later I bought a digital camera; the cheap kind.
When I had proven my point to Martin - that anyone can take a good picture with the right amount of will - my photography went dormant.
Until another friend of a friend showed me his stuff. My social circuit praised it. I'm not going to go into details, but something told me I could do it better. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't my ego that drove me to it; it was my competitive side.
That kept me going for a few years more. When I eventually absorbed all the initiative the situation demanded, my photography went dormant again. Sooner or later I made the decision to join a photography community that will remain nameless. I was overwhelmed. Photographers from all over the world made the hard earned fruits of my hard labor seem trifle.
To make a long story short, that kept my interest going up to this very point.

So I figure the moral of the story is: if it wasn't for you people, I probably wouldn't be taking any pictures.
But you know what, I think I'm starting to like it.

By the way, I'm 22.