
A sunrise is beautiful and hopeful no matter what its form.
Do you remember your eighth birthday, Sienna? The one with the Mentos gum? Of course you do. How could you forget? I'm the one who's starting to forget, starting to lose the details. You know? Like how you can hear a song and remember being somewhere with someone but it's all very vague, and all you can remember is how you felt when that song was playing, but everything else is just a blur. No, I'll bet you probably don't know that feeling. Not yet...
Near High Falls, NY (population 624). A bright cold afternoon in late December. The snow-powdered bridge marks the threshold to the forest. Underneath, water rushes past massive boulders of ice, in search of available crevices. As I enter the path lined by snowy pines, my footsteps soften and the clamor of the highway dissipates...
I see the sun rise over the ocean every morning during my ride to school, and this photo was inspired by those sunrises. They look different every morning; sometimes there's rain and wind-chopped waves or gloomy clouds in the distance, but somehow the sun always manages to poke through. I took this photo on one such morning and edited it to capture how I see even the gloomiest sunrise: as a reminder that, no matter how tired or stressed I am, the sun is always going to be a bright light that guides me.
It's said a picture is worth a thousand words. So, what about the thousand pictures I took in Place Z? I can't imagine how to convey in words the countless incredible experiences I had there, nor the many extraordinary people I met, so there won't be an essay on Place Z. Not yet, anyway. Maybe with time I'll gain some perspective. Meanwhile, here are a few of my favorite photos of this enchanted place.
A giant wave greeted me upon my arrival.
My favorite spot to read in Place Z was this beautiful ancient glade.
One day, I saw a rare red-shelled sea turtle.
Everywhere was so beautiful at night. Nowhere more so than the coffee shop on the hill.
Although he didn't make a great first impression, Flower Bro came to be one of my closest friends.