08/20/2026
📸 When Life Comes Full Circle ❤️
Sometimes life has a way of bringing people and places back into your story in ways you could never have planned.
My junior year of high school, my family moved, and I transferred to a new high school. That first summer, I met a lot of new friends—people who became part of a chapter of my life that, at the time, I never imagined I would revisit decades later.
Fast-forward about 30 years, and life brought me back to Greeneville, this time teaching nursing at Tusculum University.
One day, we were discussing CPR certification for our nursing students when I recognized the name of one of the instructors—Jonathan Gray. I knew Jonathan was working with the fire department in Greeneville, but I hadn't seen him in years.
I reached out, and before long, Jonathan was at Tusculum providing CPR training for our nursing students. Somewhere between compressions, certifications, and nursing students, we had the opportunity to catch up on 30 years of life. We talked about careers, our families, our kids, and where life had taken us.
During those conversations, I mentioned how much I had grown to love photography.
A few years later, Jonathan asked me if I would photograph his youngest daughter, Hannah, for volleyball as she began her senior year of high school.
At that point, I had been investing a lot of time into improving my photography—taking classes, purchasing new equipment, learning off-camera flash, and experimenting with things like fire, smoke, and more dramatic sports photography. Hannah became one of the athletes I had the opportunity to photograph several times throughout her senior year at Greeneville.
Meanwhile, another part of my life was growing alongside photography. While teaching at Tusculum and serving as a faculty athletic representative, I began photographing Tusculum sporting events. Eventually, that grew into opportunities to photograph team pictures, individual portraits, and action shots for Tusculum athletes.
Hannah went on to attend Pellissippi State Community College, graduated this past May, and then committed to Tusculum University for this fall.
And this week, the story came completely full circle.
The girl I photographed as she began her senior year of high school volleyball is now beginning her junior year of college, and I had the privilege of photographing her again—this time wearing a Tusculum University volleyball uniform. 🧡🖤🏐
There was something pretty special about standing behind the camera for these pictures.
Thirty years ago, Jonathan and I were just high school kids who had no idea where life would take us. Years later, our paths crossed again because of nursing and CPR training. That reconnection eventually led me to photograph his daughter during an important chapter of her life. And now, through my time at Tusculum and my love of photography, our paths have crossed yet again.
Sometimes you don't realize you're creating a full-circle story until you're standing right in the middle of it.
I'm thankful for the connection with my hometown. I'm thankful for friendships that can pick back up after decades. I'm thankful for photography and all the people it has allowed me to meet and reconnect with.
And I'm especially thankful that I got to capture another chapter of Hannah's story.
From Greeneville volleyball ➡️ Pellissippi State ➡️ Tusculum University volleyball.
Welcome home, #12. 🏐🧡🖤
Here's to a great junior season, Hannah!
Some photographs capture a moment. Others remind you just how beautifully life can come full circle. 📸❤️
