Life Though a 35mm Lens

MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2011
Life Though a 35mm Lens

Imagine, a teenage boy sulking from painstaking class hour to painstaking class hour. Not being able to see, being there but not existing, learning but not understanding.  Dipped in a dark and dismal depression, suffocating by the very air that kept me alive, I let myself be known only when it mattered.  This is how freshman and sophomore year trickled by, long months became weeks, and weeks, days. By the 360th day of high school, near lifeless the reached sun beat down on my grueling walk home. Salty beads of sweat trickle of the bridge of my nose. RING RING…RING RING “Hello?”, Lazily answering the boy.
“Hey I’m taking you to enroll at Hamilton. Meet you at Target.” Replied the energetic voice.
Too tired to talk correctly, “Kay, bye.” My gloomy response was released.
            Yes, that sad excuse for a son was me, and for the next three months or so I remain in this dark place. That enrollment interview changed something, yet I was unaware of it. Going through the extensive list of extra classes available was tendering on overwhelming. My choice made, summer came and went as uneventful as a weekend in bed with the flu.
By the end of first hour I had been outcast but the over cocky underclassmen. It was not for a month or so that I found a new perspective on life, a 35mm Pentax K1000. Camera in hand I saw the world around me with a clearer focus. The camera had not simply done that, but it was also a light that lit up that deep dark place I inhabited before. Every open close with the shutter melts my blanket of darkness away. The photo class opened my eyes to show me an entirely new spectrum of colors; that for every negative there is a positive. I felt a strong pull towards sight when before I felt blindness. With the camera and my new-fangled skills I wanted to create warmth that melts smiles to other faces and not just mine. Photography has become my greatest escape from the world’s faults and disarrays, created a trusted safe house from the world’s unjust, malicious ways of life. Through its many lenses I have seen a world that shines and blossoms in every dark shadow. Whether photography has made me a better person in society or just a teen with a brighter outlook on life, it inspires me to do what makes my aching heart warm. The inspiration has birthed a new, extraordinary positive look towards life.
Through every new lens I see a new brighter silver lining on every dark and dismal rain cloud. Losing my mind, clicking away, creating expressions of my safety net for all to see, freedom is created from the confines of each aperture.