Babel

I thought it was more than necessary to share my piece of mind on the monumental release of Mumford & Sons' new album, Babel.  Now, I've always been a fan of Mumford & Sons and the way their music always seems to leave me speechless, but after hearing only a few of their songs from their new album, I'm pretty sure I made the transition from just a fan to a complete fanatic. My iTunes has been set to replay the album on a full rotation for the last two days, and I have yet to get the least bit sick of any of their new songs.  I have never bought a full album on iTunes. I usually pick 4-5 of my favorites, but, for the first time ever, I spent the $14.99.  A few of my favorites are Holland Road, Ghosts That We Knew, I Will Wait, Babel, Hopeless Wanderer, and Lovers' Eyes.  I hope this inspires you all to at least buy a few of their songs, because I promise it's more than worth it.

New Addition to the Family

For the past few months my family and I have been involved with a dog rescue organization called K9 Angels.  This shelter saves dogs from another pound called BARC, which is a kill shelter-meaning that if they are not adopted by the 90th day, they are euthanized.  Every weekend, K9 Angels allows adoptions, but during the week, the dogs need a place to go.  Most dogs need to find a home for a week, and this is called fostering.  My family and I have fostered 4 dogs now, and have found each of them homes with great families.
We fell in love with each dog as we took care of them for weeks at a time, but when it was time to say goodbye and pass them off to their new families, we knew that it was the best thing for them.  But just 2 weeks ago, my mother got a call from K9 Angels asking if we could foster one more dog.  Our plan was to take a break from fostering for a few weeks, but when we heard this dog's story, we simply couldn't let her go.  Someone had found a 3 month old, lab mix puppy on the side of the road on Gessner.  Gessner is a very busy and dangerous street in the middle of all the action in Memorial.  She was taken to Bark and was going to be put down because she was sick with a very severe cough and other health issues.  We decided to take her under our wing and nurse her back to a state of health in which she was good enough to find a new home.  However, that plan changed only after a few days of knowing her.  My whole family had instantly fallen in love with this puppy with soft, white fur and chubby cheeks.
I had wanted a new dog for quite some time, and was hoping for a lab or retriever of some sort.  When we got the news that they needed a home for a baby lab, I knew it was a sign.  This little puppy has been an angel sent from Heaven.  We decided to name her Bessie-Bess for short-and only after a few days with her, we realized how smart and sweet she was. We had to nurse her back to health because she had been sneezing and coughing non-stop. It has been two weeks since we first got her, and she has almost completely recovered.  My whole family has decided that this one would be too hard to let go of and that we have all formed a connection with her. I am now a proud owner of two dogs, a cat, a bunny, a hamster, and a fish.  Bessie's life has taken a turn for the better, and she has made an imprint on my family's lives that we will never forget.
And of course, here are some pictures to follow:

Into the Wild

The title says it all pretty much.  The summer after junior year, all those who participate in YoungLife are given the opportunity to sign up for the much heard of trip to Wilderness Ranch.  Now, Wilderness Ranch is just the name of the base camp.  This is where the groups are formed and all who go attempt to shove and squeeze all their necessities and belongings for the week into a heavy-duty hiking backpack.  Here's the thing though; this backpack will be going everywhere with you for the week, so the objective is to take the right amount of clothing and equipment but not to pack too heavy of an amount for your spine to handle.

The "wilderness" part comes into play once one of the workers from the base camp has dropped you and your group off an hour away from base camp at a trail head, and let me tell you, I don't know what I was expecting, but this was definitely harder.  The week consisted of hiking to new campsites daily with a heavy pack on your back (which is carrying everything you will be living off of the rest of the week).  In my pack I carried my clothes, my sleeping bag, my sleeping mat, the tarp for our tents, the heavy fettuccine alfredo dinner, and other necessities like a headlamp and tooth paste.

I went into this week with a positive attitude and hoping for the best.  And although it was probably the most difficult week of my life, it was the most life changing and amazing as well.  I got to know all the girls in my group so well as we all told our life stories throughout the course of the week.  We all cried--some from the difficulty of the trail, and some from emotional pain.  In the end, though, it was so rewarding.  We all decided that the 31-mile hike was painful and grueling, but 100% worth the bond we had all made with each other.  Long story short, I had the best time of my life on that trail.  Those who know me don't exactly pin me as the "earthy" and "camper" type, but I am proud to say and not ashamed to brag that I survived in the wilderness, slept on the ground, and lived off hope for a week in the wilderness.

This saying somehow ended up being our motto for the week, we would always say it when we needed a good laugh to push us up the mountain.

Although sleeping on the ground was a difficulty for all, we were a bit sad to leave our camp site to begin our next day of hiking each morning.

Getting though the week was made a little easier we found out by just putting big smiles on our faces and pretending like we weren't in pain.

This is a picture from the day we woke up at 3 AM to peak a mountain top.  It took us about 5 hours I would say, but it seemed like forever while hiking up in the rain and sleet.

Once we got to the bottom, we were frozen and most of us couldn't feel our fingers.  We decided to make a huge source of body heat by huddling together. It was a success until we were forced to get our packs back on and hit the trail once more.

The beautiful San Juan mountains of Colorado always rewarded us with a gorgeous sun-set at the end of our days of hiking as we sat at dinner and told stories and enjoyed our time to rest.

In the end, I am so glad I went on this amazing trip with such amazing ladies.  Getting on the bus to head back to Houston was such a difficulty as we had to leave our 3 beloved guides behind.  Tears were shed, but we promised to find a way to stay in touch!

Summer Nights

School was let out and my not-so-chill summer started without warning.  From basketball, to YoungLife Camp, to Colorado with friends, this summer has been hands down the busiest of them all.  Also, when everyone said the summer before senior year is the craziest time for getting ready for college, they weren't lying.  So here are some photos in chronological order of how my summer has been so far.  Not gonna lie, it's been pretty great! I hope to do some more in-detail posts on the more key aspects of the past few months, but for now this is all I've got!

A lovely tradition at MHS is that for the last week of school, the incoming seniors dress up each day.  This day's theme was "señoritas".  We thought the color coordination for the rainbow effect was a nice touch.

Another theme day of that week was "country club".  This has nothing to do with the fact of being the new seniors, but it's just how Memorial does it; with a little preppy style.

And end of the school year pool parties are a must.  They just start off the summer on a good note.

And a summer just wouldn't be the same without a few selfies with some of my closest friends!

Then come the bitter-sweet grad parties where we bid our older friends goodbye.  This one was for my good friend Melanie.  We are all going to miss her so much!

My mom and I went on a quick road trip to some of my favorite possible colleges.  This one included Dallas for SMU and Fort Worth for TCU.  Both schools were so amazing!

A great Father's Day with the family!

 

 
 
One of my most recent adventures(literally) was with YoungLife to Wilderness Ranch in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.  I spent the week in the wilderness, with 12 girls, my leaders, an extra change of clothes, and God on my side.  It was definitely the most difficult week of my life, but at the same time the most incredible and rewarding.  More to come about that week later! I promise!

 
 
 
 
I spent the 4th of July with some good friends and their family in Colorado.  We went on some good hikes and saw the amazing Darius Rucker in concert!  Coming back to the Houston heat and humidity was tough, but it's nice to be back with my family and in my own home.  I'm surprised to say, I missed it here in H-town!

Photo Essay

Today in photojournalism, my class was given an assignment; to create a photo essay over the next couple of weeks.  Having no idea what to expect or what a photo essay even is, I did some research.  Turns out, it's pretty self explanatory.  A photo essay is a series of photos, usually including supplementary text, meant to tell a story and portray certain emotions to the viewer.  Photo essays, usually show emotions.  The photos are meant to be shown in a certain order, symbolizing the sequence of events.
For my photo essay I will be taking pictures of an organization I volunteer for on Sundays.  Its called The Challenger Buddy Program, and it is to help children with disabilities play baseball.  It is an incredible experience, and I hope to portray the joyful emotions and the idea that everyone should have the opportunity to be involved with sports.

B&W Plus One

Long time no blog!  Its been a while, I know.  I've been taking pictures for the J1 issue of the newspaper and learning new things to do on photoshop, but finally our class got assigned another blog post!  The most recent thing we have learned how to do in photo shop is taking a photo; making it black and white and picking one color to stand out.  The assignment was called black & white plus one(for obvious reasons). Adding this technique to my list of skills on photoshop was an exciting one because I have always wanted to know how to do this.  This was so fun and actually a lot simpler than I expected it to be!  I chose the picture below of fellow blogger, Stephanie Hillin (http://ilovephotoj.blogspot.com), because I loved the look of her denim shirt against the black and white.  It was a nice pop of color and her smile is so big, it's impossible not to smile when I look at it!  I hope you enjoy this picture as much as I do.
~Thanks for reading!!~

{I love this picture of Stephanie.  It is so happy and the bright pop of color in her denim shirt made this the perfect picture to use my new technique on}

Iconic Photo

Hello bloggers! My class has been busy learning about iconic photos and their impact on the world.  For this assignment, each student randomly picked an iconic photo from Life Magazine and was given the task to learn about the photographer, the location, the subjects, and why it is considered iconic.  As you may have guessed, the photo above is the one I was given.  From this assignment I learned about the Birmingham Protest for Civil Rights and African American rights.  The subjects in this photo are high school kids who were involved in the protesting and are being hit with a high pressure water hose.  The use of a water hose as a weapon in symbolic of dispersing and ridding the area of the African Americans.  This photo was taken by Charles Moore in 1963.  After all this happened and this photo was released, the municipal government was pressured into changing the city's discrimination laws into being more fail and equal.  This photo is considered iconic because it showed people the unfair treatment of African Americans and people started believing it needed to stop.  Each student did a presentation on their photo.  Some other photos that really stood out to me and opened by eyes included the photo of the 6 soldiers raising the flag at the battle of Iwo Jima, the Afghan Girl photo, and photo taken by Kevin Carter of the famine struck child next to the bird.  

I had already seen this photo before many times, but learning more about it was so interesting and eye-opening.  It is such an incredible picture capturing the strength of America and the courage of our soldiers.  This photo definitely deserves to be called an iconic photo.

I had never seen this photo before, but it was so interesting to learn of the story behind those incredible eyes.  This is a 12 year old Afghan girl.  This photo is a symbol of the conflict going on during the war in Afghanistan.  

This photo is very famous for the controversy with hunger and the starvation of children.  This photo was taken by Kevin Carter in 1993 and really sparked a lot of conflict on why he did not do anything to help the child get to the food and water only a short distance away.  This photo is very emotional and is known to be very ethically controversial.