NORWAY OR BUST: Why I'm even bothering

(My Instagram feed @justnlstewart)

If you get on Facebook daily and are a friend of mine, you've undoubtedly seen one of my posts begging for your daily vote (which you can log right here: http://dreamjobbing.com/dreamjobs/VisitNorway/#1492).

Let me start off by saying that I've never done one of these contest before.

Always the skeptic, I generally figure these things to be worthless, out of reach dealios that I could care less about, and that's what I though when I first came across this opportunity to work in Norway.

Then, I watched as almost no one entered the contest. My interest was further peaked when watching videos of these people who are amateur photographers applying for this two-week position as a photojournalist.

That's when I decided it was time to throw my hat in the ring.

I only have to be in the top 20 to get the interview, and there are only about two other trained photographers in the top 20, meaning I've got a great shot at winning this thing if I get that interview.

As of this moment, I'm just 300 votes behind 20th place. I jumped up two spots yesterday.

I'm not one to ask for help and I hate spamming Facebook asking for everyone's help, but as I've continuously said, I can't do this without you. I've hated every second of trying to round up votes because I hate to think that I'm bothering someone for some selfish reason.

But this really is my dream and it's within my grasp.

My heritage has always been a source of pride and was a large reason behind sporting my long blonde hair for such a long period of time.

Being Norwegian makes me proud and visiting my family and family farm back in Norway is one of my dreams because we've got some awesome history there.


There's only a few days left of voting, with all voting ceasing on midnight of the 22nd.

I need more votes.

I'm averaging just over 100 votes a day, but I need to get about double that to make sure I get up to at least 20th place. While I'm gaining ground, they're still getting their votes too.

If you are kind enough to share my voting link, please tell people to vote for me daily. There's only a few days left, and if all of my 100 votes got one other person each to vote for me every day, I'd get that 200 votes I need.

Here's my big plea: Vote daily, encourage your friends to vote daily, and if it's not too much to ask, pimp my voting link for these last few days: http://dreamjobbing.com/dreamjobs/VisitNorway/#1492

Thank you so much to everyone who has been voting daily and sharing my link. I know how painful it is to share it - it kills me posting it every day. I can only imagine what I've done to my professional image.

This has been a really amazing experience in the manner that I've learned about how much support I have that I never could have guessed at. I am surrounded by some amazing people.

And thank you to my sister, who has helped me exponentially, hounding all forms of family (near and far), friends, and colleagues. I couldn't have even made it this far without you.

As a final note, please forgive all the posting and messaging I've been doing on Facebook. It's far from my normal behavior and a sign of how important this is to me. AND IT'S STILL DOABLE!

And a link or two to further photographic work for those of you unfamiliar with me: http://www.justinlstewart.com
http://justinstewartphotography.tumblr.com/

3 more days.

http://dreamjobbing.com/dreamjobs/VisitNorway/#1492