As college graduation got closer, I had no real plan. One day it was law school, the next it was real estate, then marketing… I was honestly all over the place. The only thing I really knew for sure was that I didn’t want to leave Bemidji. I had fallen in love with the community during my time at Bemidji State, but I assumed the next step meant moving back home to White Bear Lake and figuring it out from there. Then Dr. Kelly LaVenture, my current marketing professor, presented a job opportunity at Visit Bemidji.
I didn’t know much about the organization beyond seeing their social media, but something about it made sense. It felt like a way to stay in a place I wasn’t ready to leave. I told her I wanted to apply, and she helped me through the process, reviewing my resume, and even putting in a good word for me. When I got the offer, I felt everything at once. Relief. Excitement. And a lot of nerves!
It was my first “big girl job” as an Office Administrator and Sales Coordinator, and I was excited… but also very aware that I had no idea what I was doing yet. I’ve since grown into a Sales and Marketing Coordinator role, which still feels a little surreal! My first couple of weeks were honestly pretty awkward. I barely spoke. I was trying so hard to figure everything out and not mess up that I think I forgot how to just be myself.
And then UNICON happened.
Not long after I started, the team needed someone to help with photography for the World Unicycling Championships. I had done a little photography in high school and grew up “borrowing” my mom’s Sony a6000, so I volunteered. I didn’t overthink it. I just said, “I can do that.”
That week ended up changing everything. UNICON was high energy, fast paced, and unlike anything I had ever experienced. I spent days running around taking photos, meeting people, and trying to keep up with everything happening around me. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, something clicked again. I fell back in love with photography.
I don’t think I fully realized it in the moment, but that experience pulled something back out of me that I hadn’t felt in years. From there, everything slowly started to build. Visit Bemidji kept giving me opportunities I never expected. Events, video shoots, conferences, tourism campaigns, and eventually things like the Ojibwe Forests Rally and even assisting with television ad work.
One of those campaigns even went on to win an Explore Minnesota tourism award for highlighting storm recovery through the “We Are Open” campaign, which was one of those surreal moments where I had to step back and realize I was actually part of something much bigger than I thought!
And then there were the moments that were just fun in a completely different way, like jumping into the aura farming trend during the Dragon Boat Festival shoot, filming mascots, and somehow ending up dancing in the Babe the Blue Ox costume in the middle of it all. At one point, I even got to drive a stock car around the Bemidji Speedway… which still feels kind of unreal to say out loud. I mean, who gets to do that as part of their job?
But more than the events themselves, the job changed me.
It gave me confidence.
It pushed me out of my comfort zone.
It taught me how to show up in rooms and actually speak.
It connected me to a community I didn’t realize I was becoming part of.
Somewhere along the way, Bemidji stopped feeling like just the place I went to college. It started feeling like home.
About a year into the job, I told my mom I had really started enjoying photography again. She told me her old camera had been sitting in storage and gave it to me. That camera ended up becoming the start of everything I’m doing now. Looking back, it’s funny how one decision can create a ripple effect you never see coming.
If I hadn’t taken that job, I probably would have moved back home and ended up in a completely different role somewhere else. If I hadn’t volunteered for UNICON, I may never have fallen back in love with photography. If I hadn’t fallen back in love with photography, I never would have started picking up a camera again outside of work. If I hadn’t started doing that, I never would have brought a camera to the Bemidji All School Reunion Street Dance. And if I hadn’t been at that event, I never would have met the couple who asked me to photograph their wedding.
That one conversation eventually became the start of Visuals by Syd.
It’s funny how life works sometimes. What I thought was simply a marketing job ended up helping me rediscover something I didn’t realize I had been missing. Looking back, accepting the position at Visit Bemidji wasn’t just a career decision, it was the beginning of a completely new chapter! It gave me confidence. It gave me community. It gave me opportunities I never could have imagined.
If you know me you know I am a big Disney/children's movies fan. The other day I was listening to “Go the Distance” from Hercules and realized I finally understand it a little differently now. Growing up, I always related to that feeling of searching for where you belong. For the first time, I feel like I’m actually there.
Most importantly, it helped me realize something I had been searching for for a long time:
I was already where I belonged.
