09/02/2018
365/365 Out of the Woods
Wow. Day 365. I’m done. Are you guys ready for a wall of text? No? Neither am I but here we go anyways:
After 3 years and 3 months, it’s finally over. Honestly, I didn’t think I would ever finish this project, it’s sort of surreal to me. When I first started this project, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and how big of a project I was taking on. This project is so much more than just becoming a better photographer, it’s changed my life and I’ve never been happier.
With the end of this project, everything is coming full circle. When I first started this project, I had just finished high school and was about to start my first year of college at UMD not even really sure what I wanted to do. I was bitter. Angry. I was trying to convince myself that I loved what I was studying when the reality of it all was that I was studying something I never had passion for at an institution that never felt like home. I never knew what that feeling of home felt like, that feeling of belonging. While I “fit” into this school, it was like wearing a t-shirt that was slightly too small but still able to “fit” into it, it was just uncomfortable. I hated my life.
With the end of this project comes the end of my time at UMD. I decided to leave this institution in pursuit of happiness and to chase after my dreams. As cheesy as this sounds, I don’t want my dreams to just be dreams, I want them to be reality. I’m sick and tired of living a lie and I’m not going to let anything stop me now.
This project is a part of me. It captures a little piece of me in every photo, of who I was, what I was facing at the time of each picture, and all the little changes I went through. And I don’t mean just in my photography. So much has changed in these past few years. I figured out what I really wanted to do with my life. I discovered what home felt like, what it felt like to finally feel like I belonged. Instead of just telling myself that “well it’s good enough right?”
It feels like these pictures are a metaphor for the amount of change that I went through. You can see all of this from day 1 to day 365. When I started this journey “into the woods,” I was awkward and stiff, afraid to express myself. I’m ending the journey, coming “Out of the Woods” as a completely different person, I’ve shed that part of me. And there’s only more growth from here on out.
And lastly, gosh I don’t even know where to begin but thank you. Thank you to everyone that’s joined me on this journey. Thank you to all the models that put up with me and my strange requests. Thank you to all my friends that put up with me sending them a million photos and asking them for their opinion because I’m so indecisive. Just thank you to everyone that’s helped me with the project. Thank you to the people that inspired me to start (❤️ Gina Vasquez) and all of you that inspired me along the way to keep me going. A very special thank you to Alex Bloch and Elliot Tratt for being one of my first photo buddies and changing my life. And just thank you to all the lovely people I met along the way, there’s so many of you but thank you for touching my heart with your photography and your story. Thank you for being a part of this chapter of my life. I cannot thank you guys enough. Just thank you. ❤️
