Back To School???

I've always known that I would go back to school. From the time I was in junior high, I wanted to go to college and get my degree in either English or History - maybe something in both. I remember going to museums or an art gallery and thinking to myself, "How cool would this be to work here?" or "Wouldn't it be amazing to have all this knowledge and be able to hold a great conversation?!" However, over the past year (or maybe a little more than a year) I've unbelievably intrigued with photography. Now don't get me wrong, I've always loved taking pictures - ever since I was a pre-teen. But for some reason it's just become a bigger "hobby" for me and I realized that I can go back to school for it. Then I would not only have a better knowledge of the different types of film equipment, development and all that grand stuff but I will also be able to grow with something that I love even more! I would still love to get a degree in English or History though - especially since I'm using different aspects of English on a daily basis with my job. But there is just something about photography that hits home for me.

In talking with one of my good friends (who just happens to be the other half of my managerial team at work) the other day on our way back from lunch, I had told her the reason why I want to do more photography (besides the fact that I could get MUCH better pictures for the covers of our books at work than what we are getting from most the customers that do trade for us). I started talking to her more about how my grandpa has Alzeheimer's and the experience I had the last time we were visiting with him. First of all, you need to understand the type of man my grandpa is. He is a person who loves to tell stories - he would constantly tell us stories of his times in the army during WWII, growing up, meeting my grandma, moving up here, his kids, the horses, etc. He would tell us these stories over and over again. On this certain day, my grandma and I had been talking about how my grandpa had been doing as he sat in his chair watching my boys. For some reason or another, he decided he would bring in some pictures for Braydon to look at. So he went and got the pictures, handed them to Braydon and sat back down not saying anything. After a few minutes, he said, "Where did those pictures come from?" And as I looked at my grandma, he then said, "Oh, I remember those horses." (See, my grandpa has this type of fascination with taken pictures of horses so he has boxes and boxes just full of pictures - maybe that's kind of where my fascination comes from too.) And it was like looking at those pictures really helped spark something in his memory and he started talking to Braydon about all these different times that involved certain horses. This was a really big and important thing (something that I want my kids to remember) because it had been some time since I had heard him tell a story. So in talking with my friend about this occasion, I made a statement as to how I want to be that person that just captures those memories for people - because you'll never know when you'll lose them in your mind.

So I'm going to go back to school and I'm honestly excited about it.