Deep breath...
Exhale.
This one I've been struggling with for about a week now.
When I started this blog several years ago, it was done in an effort to allow our clients a peek behind the curtain here at Stewart Photography... a day to day glimpse of what we do... how we do it... who we're interacting with, and while there's obviously some shameless promotion of our family business... I do take great pride in doing what I was really trained to do... and that's writing.
So this thing we call blogging has taken a life of it's own over the past several years. I've had so much wonderful feedback... usually from tearful mothers and fathers who thank me for telling their son or daughter's story with pride, compassion and thoughtfulness. I even had one senior fella a few years ago tell me... "I know that my pictures will be awesome... but what I'm REALLY excited about is to see what you're gonna WRITE about me!"
For real. (If you must know.... it was Tanner Purvis... Gladbrook-Reinbeck Class of 2012)
So, for the most part.... I wax poetically about the predictable stuff. A guy's passion for football... a girls dreams of being a school teacher... a senior's exciting homecoming week... a mom who cannot believe that she's actually HERE... watching her daughter have senior pictures taken when it was just yesterday they were toting them around in a baby carrier.
But sometimes... life doesn't go as predicted or planned.
Sometimes God throws you a curveball. A BIG curveball... like one of those big benders that buckles your knees...
Or brings you to your knees.
When you've been doing this job for 21 years plus... sometimes you feel like you seen and heard it all. Photographed it all. Written about it all.
And then along comes something that you haven't seen before.
Ashley Robinson was photographed a couple weeks back. When her step-father came in to book her session about a month ago, I was told that they had a special request. And while I've had maybe a dozen requests over the years for a senior girl to be photographed with her child that she gave birth to... this one was quite different.
There were two... as in twins.
And... they were almost four years old.
Now, as I age... I feel like while I may be getting wiser... my brain seems to be slowing down annually... but even my Montour Math tells me that if this high school SENIOR has twin boys that are almost four... She had to have had those boys...
You can connect the dots.
As I swallowed hard and remembered back to when I was in eighth grade... and worried about who I was gonna sit by at lunch... who I might pass a note to in study hall.... who I might play Donkey Kong with on Nintendo after football practice... becoming a PARENT wasn't in the line of thinking then. In fact... it was more than a decade away yet. And, quite obviously... it is for most middle schoolers.
But not for Miss Robinson.
And while I don't want this story to turn into a de facto referendum on pro-life vs. pro-choice or teen pregnancy, the story is still there. It's not just a sidebar... it's who Ashley IS.
Suddenly, when this came to light for me a few weeks ago... I recall my OWN 8th grade girl... four years ago.... braces and awkwardness and all... telling me of a facebook tidbit that she and her friends had come across... and how they couldn't even FATHOM it.
"Dad... there's a girl in OUR grade from South Tama... who's pregnant... with TWINS!"
News travels faster than ever, now doesn't it?
So while I didn't press Ashley during her session as to her thoughts back then... and how that all must have been so scary and such an anxious time of facing the unknown... clearly many YEARS ahead of when most of us face it... she DID face it. And four years later... I came face to face with that girl that my daughter told me about back in middle school.
With what undoubtedly has taken great courage and spirit (and a ton of help from friends and family) Ashley has been raising these two ornery boys and there was absolutely no way that Mihkail and Kaden would not be a part of her session... and naturally then at this studio... part of Ashley's story.
Sure we did lots of normal senior-esque stuff. The swing... the backwards chair... the multiple outfit changes... (in addition to a touching tribute to her boyfriend who is serving our country in the armed forces)... but all of that paled in comparison to what those two little boys mean to this young lady and her inevitable struggle in a world that can be harsh and judgmental... even though we all fall short sometimes.
So when the request to work in Mr. Kail and Mr. Kaden was presented... I pulled up my big boy photographer pants and realized instead of talking normal senior jargon... it was time to get my goofy on... tongue out... (which the boys were MORE than willing to reciprocate... let me tell ya), silly faces, noise makers... puppets... you name it... what ever it takes to get a child to cooperate!
I'd be lying if I said it was easy... because when you get a child... or in this case... TWO of them this age... it's never easy. But in the end... we did get some fun images of Ashley's two little gifts.
And while some may have let this situation consume them in a negative way... or even stop them from chasing their dreams... I'm thrilled to report to you that Ashley is currently planning a double major at the University of Iowa starting next fall. A bold plan to be sure... yet, what a wonderful example she sets for her boys that nothing will stand in her way to become the best person she can be for her young family.
While I've photographed state champions and all-staters... valedictorians and future surgeons, there's never been a senior quite like this one. The backbone that this girl has had to develop in order to do all of this before her high school diploma is put in her hand this May... is remarkable.
It can be debated as to where you stand on this situation... looking at it from afar... but in this blog space... and at this studio... I tip my cap to Ashley and her strength. I hope God continues to bless you and your boys.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
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