 My exposure to photography really began when I was a kid. My dad was our go-to family photographer and any trip to my grandparents almost guaranteed that we'd spend hours pouring over the boxes of old film slides, going back all the way to when he was a kid. I think seeing all those memories recorded instilled an appreciation in me for capturing moments and seeing the world around me pretty early on. When I was in high school, I started using one of my dad's old film cameras and it wasn't long before I was given one of my own as a graduation present. I started my first semester intending to pursue engineering and I had to schedule full of STEM courses but it didn't take me long to realize that's just not what I wanted. My camera, on the other hand, was never far. I was taking photos of everything, moments of life, trips with my friends, everything. That growing passion led me to my first photography class here. It was a black-and-white film class and I just fell in love with it. I can't say I had a direction in mind but I was loving the process of film. It's about discovery and I love being a student not just of the art form but of my own work. Some of my photos from intro. There's one here that's my favorite. I gotta find it. This one is of my friends. Looking back at it now, there's definitely some stuff I'd change, like this guy's wearing a black jacket and he's against the window so he kind of fades into it a little bit I mean, retrospectively it's still a good image. I'm not mad at it. I've let myself follow that passion. I have a printed portfolio of work now and I'm getting to create a book next semester. Completely far out from anything I thought I would see myself doing. I think one of the greatest lessons I've learned here at UVM is how far my passion can carry me. There's this idea that when you're pursuing art you're either good at it or you're not. You either have it or you don't. I think some people definitely have an intuition for it and I've learned too. Now when I go out on trips with my friends the camera isn't just a second thought. It's how I see the world.