Captions Aren't My Thing

I noticed today that a few planets were missing. I wonder how long they've been gone and where they disappeared to.

"Do not look at yourself with disgust, you are a gift to this earth. You are beautiful, you are a light, an energy, an essence. You are nature herself."

- Heidi Pickett

This is Iman. I named him after the world's first black supermodel because she represents courage and bravery and a type of diversity that not everyone can understand; she was stunningly beautiful in an unconventional way, and I believe that he (my cat) is just as breathtaking, but many people thought he was ugly.

"I don't know what it was, you see. Her eyes had a certain sparkle. Her personality was fiery and precious."

I've always wanted to do a piece that breaks out of society's mold, therefore I made a deal with my brother and his friends. If they would come take photos with me, I would drive them around to skate spots. This piece would be titled, "Boys Can Wear Highlighter Too".

I found him in a house off Commercial street on the edge of town. The house was filled with fleas, bedbugs, cockroaches. He was locked in the bathroom with three other kittens. There was no litter box, cat food bowl, water bowl. The guy who "owned" him decided to spend his very little money on drugs, alcohol, and shitty pizza. He would feed these kittens, who were barely old enough to walk, scraps of food once a day. The day I was there, he fed them torn up pieces pizza crust. They fought over the scraps in such a desperate, heart shattering way that it made you see things from a different perspective. 

They called him "The Asshole" because he smaller and was more aggressive. He would sprint from one side of the couch to the next trying to get a bite of food. I would watch him and his siblings play with dead cockroaches in the kitchen after they're bellies were too bloated from high processed carbs to eat anything else. I was the only one who tried to show him any love.

After I took him and two of the other kittens, we found them good homes where they would be safe and loved. He's now my best friend. He purrs the loudest of any of my cats; he'll follow me from room to room. The compassion he exerts is astounding. If my cat can understand empathy and compassion, how can humans beings not?

There's a special kind of grace and purity in capturing moments of unexpected bliss. 

It took me a long time to understand why people cared if they could walk around shirtless in public or not. Eventually I realized that was not the point they were trying to make. 

It still hasn't sunk in that half of my high school career is already over.

"You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place. Like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again."

- Azar Nafisi

The lighting and trees looked too good not to capture.

Rainy days are a blessing.

It was surreal to be able to hold all of our hardwork in my hands. Weeks and hours and deadlines all for this. Seeing my name printed with words I wrote and photos I took, to be distributed throughout the school and shown off as a representation of Kickapoo, was a feeling like no other. 

"I know these will all be stories someday, and our pictures will become old photographs. We'll all become someone's mom or dad. But right now, these moments are not stories. This is happening."

- Perks of Being a Wallflower