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. 

paris me manque.

i miss paris. someone wanna buy me a plane ticket so i can go back? i just wanna eat a crêpe in the tuilleries garden and roam the side streets and boutiques in my homestay neighborhood. merci beaucoup!

one of my all-time favorite spots in paris. the notre dame is such a reverent place. sooo much history. i think i just love being in a city that is as old and has as much history as paris does. 

oh, champs elysées. you warm my heart. 

sigh. thought yall would enjoy some pictures from my unforgettable summer. i sure did enjoy the reminiscing.

this week.

this week has been and will be extremely crazy. some things i have loved being busy about. other things.... not so much. sunday was the thing i loved getting to do. i had the wonderful pleasure of shooting my beautiful cousin and her fiance's engagement pictures. i feel so blessed to be with them and capture this moment in their lives. 

 

aren't they just a catalog couple? talk about beautiful children.

now. onto the horrible week. this week, i have 3 exams and a presentation. yes, i did say 3. my life consists of burying myself in hodge's library with business law, marketing, and international business. 

this was me last night. i cant take credit for this picture though. i wanted to take my own picture of the books i actually do have to study, but don't forget what i told you. i have 3 exams and a presentation. no time for uploading pictures. so dont judge the borrowed pic!

this is where i would rather be. i did take this picture. because it was in a time where i wasn't hurrying or super busy. i could take my time. 

but, i will say this. by no means think i am trying to excuse my behavior or attitude because i'm "busy". i'll always be busy. everyone will. i will not take a week out of my life and- because i have tests- not talk to friends, not be tidy and pick up after myself in my house, or not participate in my usual activities. life does not stop just because my week is crazy. a good friend and i were talking about how no one has an excuse to dismiss being a friend or getting to know someone simply because they have a hectic schedule. and the same applies to me. i cannot say that no one else can do such an act and ignore others around them or hide out in the library all week and make an exception for myself when i am in their shoes. to be busy, i've recently discovered, has become an excusable idol in our society, especially college students. lay everything down and the foot of the cross. submit your busy-ness. submit the feeling of having to control everything going on. it wont change a thing if you grasp to all your plans. letting go allows trust and will give you peace. trust in Him. He loves you. He knows how important these things are that make up our lives. however, they are not the most important. just remember not to forget your first love. 

game day.

good ol rocky top.

these are a few of my [favorite] things.

these are just some pictures i have taken over the last year and theyre some of my favorites, if i do say so myself. =] i like up close shots on one particular part of the picture and let everything else just blur into the background. there is a value of that to me. to let one thing you focus on be what you concentrate on and not worry about everything else at the time being. i really love up close shots because of the detail thats given. the detail of something shows just how intricate things really are and how complex it is to make something. a very wise professor told my class that there is no such thing as multitasking. i encourage you to not multitask today. just sit back, think about just one thing, and put your all into that one thing. let nothing else compete for your time or attention. just... take time. you will find joy in that. i promise. 

these are some pictures around campus. a billboard filled with activities and meetings and places to be.

flowers that were beautiful, even in winter. even in the frost and cold, life appeared through. 

hanging by a wire. one of my favorites because of the specific focus and the large area of background. things dont have to be huge areas in your life for you to focus on just them for a while. do you what you love. do whats your passion. 

love the eyes. 

spring. life. newness.

we are letters.

it is always neat for me to think that my name is written on the heart of the Lord. not that i deserve such adoration, but what a beautiful gift to realize and deeply cherish. and in turn, our lives are represented as letters for those to see. we are to be transparent and willing to share our lives with others in order for them to see Christ. in that way, to be open and honest and sincere and submissive in order to please our Father. and to serve others is how we, in turn, know Him more deeply. putting ourselves second in a world that tells us we are #1 all the time. how difficult and so against our nature it is to strive to be something valuable not in this world, but in a completely different world. to act for eternal value instead of earthly value, which fades away so quickly. what a beautiful thing it is to be a letter hand-written by the Living God. my focus verses for this are 2 corinthians 3:2-3. but i truly loved reading 2 corinthians 3-4. such beautiful words that i cannot help but encourage you to read them in their fullness. i pray you feel His incredibly unfathomable love today. oh, how He loves us.

photo a day.

so i have decided to do a photo  a day for this blog. i would love to take a verse and apply a photo i have to it. sometimes it might be a song, or just a picture i really wanna put up! but the Lord uses the Word to speak to us and i love having a visual with His promises. for He is good all of the time. a good friend and i were just talking today of how we love hearing everyones stories and how Christ has orchestrated our lives so that we all have a similar thread that makes up the tapestry of His beautiful love for us- all of our stories are centered around His faithfulness and His pure goodness. 

so, the photo for today will focus around my devotional i had today. it speaks of how we cannot rest in anything but Him. not even the future or what is to come. He has been faithful to me in every way in the past. i can be rest assured that He will continue to do so in the future, no matter what that looks like. luke 12:22-34 speaks in such an intimate way. place particular emphasis on verse 28 for the picture. but i love how He refers to us as "little flock". He knows how unable we are to care for ourselves. but He is our beautiful and protective Shepherd and He chases after the one that is astray. He calls us by name, and we know His voice. hope yall enjoy. more pictures to come. =]

a new beginning.

so, for those of you who followed my old blog & travels to europe, i have decided to begin a new blog. the old one was for the mere purpose of posting my stories and pictures from paris and italy. now it seems to be a bit obsolete. but the whole picture thing still ravishes my attention, so i believe my new blog will be the photos i take and life in between them. i hope you enjoy!