22.

well, its official. im 22. and where id thought id be at 22 when i was 16 is severely altered. a lot has happened in between those years, and i find myself being more of an "adult" by the way im reminiscing from 16 until now. 
i cant believe im a semester away of being done with school. school is all ive known. 
i cant believe im 22. people that ive recently gotten to know at the BCM thought i was a sophomore. shows you how exceedingly mature i am. 
i cant believe that i will soon be making decisions like where i want to live and applying to find a full time job. no more internships. no more part time. 
i cant believe what my path has been in the past few years. some major life changes for sure. 
i cant believe that i will soon be someone who goes to bed at 10. there will be no more late night movies or jaunts on a whim at 1 in the morning. 
i cant believe i wont be in a place where i get to meet new people almost every week. 


but 22 is a new season. the Lord i knew in 21 will be here in a whole new way in 22. ive been blessed with friends that i know will carry their place in my lives for years to come. im excited and anxious to see it. it will bring bittersweet moments of a goodbye to a season i knew for 4 years. but it will bring new joys by letting me experience things ive never encountered before, and growth in that. so heres to you, 22. do me good. 


heres a delicious apple cupcake my cousin made from scratch. she even made homemade caramel. theyre amazing and my favorite. 

daily-sought faith.

everyday is new. thank heavens. as one of my favorite songs says, "there may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning". its such a beautiful promise. another says "as surely as the sun will rise, Youll come to us. surely as Your Word endures". i love  love love these promises. i bank on these promises. and even when the day does not start off well, i am thankful that it is only a day. today was one of those. so many stresses on my mind, apathy of being a senior, fear of not being employed come may. and then life happens. and it throws off everything. but He is just and present and alive and unchanging. ive been through things much more difficult than this, so i should not worry or freak out. so, in this moment, i seek faith. i seek a strength stronger than my own that i rely far too much on. i seek love and care and a voice constantly whispering to me "let go. I am in control. I love you. I am the I AM. nothing else matters. let go". just as each day is new, i have to wake up everyday & begin once again with knowing these truths. everyday. a daily-sought faith. 






ps- happy veterans day. thank you troops. 

november.

i love november. there are multiple reasons for this. autumn is by far my favorite season. i love the colors of the leaves and their contrast with the crisp blue sky. i love the smell of campfire. i love being able to see my breath in the morning for the first time all season. i love bundling up and walking to class with a starbucks cup in my hand. this is the month of my birth and the month to be thankful. whats not to love about november? 

another thing i love is fall decor. mums and pumpkins reside outside our home tucked into the hills. it warms my heart every time i come home from school.

see what i mean about the colors?

this was where i saw my breath for the first time this season. some friends from the 615 came up and we decided it would be fun to backpack on the coldest weekend of the year. we hiked in at least 3 inches of snow. yay for max patch!

the whole time i said it felt like we were in narnia. i was expecting mr. thomnas to poke his head out any second. 

fresh snow fell the entire time we hiked on saturday. it was beyond beautiful.

how could there not be a Creator with such beauty? 

my crazy buds who were on the trip. as the harvard sailing team says, "dont you test these besties".

the view from the top of max patch. made the whole trip absolutely worth the moments of cold toes. 

faces.

first, i just want to say- happy november. fall pictures are to come soon on here. but today i decided i want to show one of my favorite things to capture- candid pictures of people. i love the interaction and the "realness" of people in their everyday lives. here are some of the people i was able to photograph over the summer. they are all uniquely different, but the common theme is the true beauty of each person. 

one day, some friends and i took our lunch to the park beneath the eiffel tower and were surrounded by children. in paris, schools give the students a couple of hours for a lunch break and most of them go to parks as a class so they get to play. here was one child playing "foot". [what they call soccer in france]. 

this couple was playing for the public in one of my favorite places in paris: sacre coeur. they were so precious that i couldnt  not take a picture. can you blame me?  

one of my favorite moments captured in paris. 

people eating lunch at an outdoor café. 

in my opinion, this is the epitome of multi-tasking. heck, its more than i can do. 

a man reading the afternoon away in venice. 

nuns at st. francis's cathedral in assisi.

classic gondola ride. complete with an opera singer and an accordion. 

a chalk artist. this quickly took me back to mary poppins. it makes me so sad to think his beautiful work would soon be washed away by the rain. 

one of many break dancers in paris. 

to be able to capture these moments is a blessing to me. people are my passion, and to be exposed to such diversity and uniqueness will be the story and ministry of my life. our God is that much more diverse and unique. perfect in every way. what a gift it is for us to not be like anyone else, yet we each perfectly reflect Christ when He is in our hearts. 

psalm 139:13-16.