My dad. My dad said that he is thankful for me this week in an email sent out to our church, he said I was the smartest person he knew. I could not love that man any more, and how fitting that he knew the nicest compliment he could give me was about my head which often times feels crazy but if that man has enough faith in my sanity and intelligence than who am I to doubt him. I am really lucky to have him for so many reasons trying to narrow it down to just one on a list is exhausting. I couldn’t live with out him.
My Momma. the older I get the more thankful I am for her being exactly who she is. For most of my adult life our relationship didn’t come as easy as my fathers and mine. My dad would say this is because she and I are so much alike. But in the last few years I have learned the kind of strength and beauty my mom posses and I have come to respect her silent way of working through things as completely opposite of the way that I am but I love her dignity and her determination and the example she has set for me to be the kind of woman I want to be even if its different from those around me.
My parents both have given me so much support weather it be calming me down when I have panic attacks over my finals, telling me that even if I am too poor to do anything I wont have to eat out of the trash because they will feed me, and trusting me enough to pay them back for a new camera that makes me giddy every time I use it. For not thinking I am crazy for going to school for art, for not thinking I am awful for making a photo piece entitled “blow job Barbie” for letting me be me and making me feel like despite all my flaws and oddities that I am loved with the furry of a hurricane.
I am so thankful for Heather. I don’t think I realized how much her friendship meant to me until I was faced with her absence. I hung up the phone the last time I talked to her and began to cry knowing that she wouldn’t be around for months. It dawned on me how much I relied on her and how constant a friend she was. A fear crept into me that something bad would happen while she was away and I would have no one to take late night drives with and go on random adventures to take my mind off of things. A woman like heather is rare and a friend like her is even more rare her loyalty and the fact that she would have my back at a moments notice is not common. and I don’t want to take that for granted for a second.
I am thankful for Every Bride and Groom I have photographed this year. Learning to make a business out of my photography has not been an easy feat. I dread having to charge people, but its because of their faith in my ability and their investment in my work that I was able to pay for school with out taking out loans this year, and I was able to buy a new camera to further my work. I am so incredibly humbled and in awe of this and I could not be more thankful.
I am thankful for Erin. I am thankful that she has faith in me even when I feel like I suck at life. I am thankful that she saw something of herself in me and hired me and then let me follow her when we both left. It has been nothing short of empowering to work along side a passionate and determined woman who makes me laugh and makes me believe in myself while getting to create the kind of work that we love. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about how incredibly lucky I am that we get to do this, and I wouldn’t want to start this adventure with anyone else but her.
I am thankful for the professor and his bunny face. His ability to make bad days melt, and to make me smile just with his little bunny ears. For all the tears he’s snuggled away and all the pants I have had to wash because he has ninja pissed me, with out him I may never understand unconditional love.
<3 Alicia
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