It's been a minute...

Hello readers,

It has been a little while since I've been on here, well actually I should say It's been a while since I've posted something because I do come on my blog almost everyday even if I don't update anything.. I guess I like to come back and read/admire my work lol!

Anyways since I haven't posted anything in a while I decided that I should post something quickly before I lose all my readers! lol. But I really don't have anything to talk about... The past few days have been kind of slow, I've had a lot yet nothing on mind.. It's getting closer to the end of the semester and graduation so all the things I've been pushing aside are coming back up to the surface such as; job hunting,

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,figuring out what the next step in my life will be as far as graduate school so on and so fourth.. All things that quite frankly I don't want to think about :( With that said I'm not quite ready to discuss them yet so I'm going to leave that topic alone.

But I do have something a bit more interesting to introduce; I have decided to start a new project titled Portrait of the Week . For this project I will work on one picture a week, the picture will be a portrait most likely a self portrait and I will try to post the pictures every week as I work on them. I am not sure yet if I will post all the pictures I work on because of privacy issues, but I will try to share as much as possible while being respectful of everyone's privacy. Isn't this exciting?! lol! I'm really excited about the project and I'm sure it will be a good way to explore and improve my photography skills!! So stay tuned for the Picture of the Week!

My Birthday!!

I'm year older today :( this is probably not the way to start a post about my birthday, but this is how I really feel :( well I don't actually "feel" older.. whatever that means.. I always hate it when people ask me that question; how do you feel now that you are a year older?" duhhh! I don't feel any different!! You don't wake up the day of your birthday "feeling older" You just know you are and that in itself is depressing enough...Ughhh :(

My birthday this year was a bit different, I really did not want to do anything and I actually told my family and friends not to worry about planning anything because I did not want to do anything. I just wanted to sit around and mope about the fact that I was a year older and still had not accomplish all I wanted to accomplish by this time in my life. But thankfully I have friends who kept insistiing that I do something, and one of my friends proposed that we go to New York and I loved the idea; I did not necessarily have to call it my birthday celebration just an outing with friends, plus who can say no to NYC!! lol. But then the problems started, I wanted all my friends to come with me, but it was not working.. So after much frustration and almost giving up I came up with the idea of having a birthday celebration the night before my birthday with my friends in Philly and spend the day of birthday in NYC with my friends who could make it to NYC. Needless to say it worked out great! I went from having no birthday plans to having two celebration! And with two celebration comes two cakes!!


The night before my bday: Tiramisu fruit cake!

The day of my bday: fruit pie! and yes those are mangoes!

So you may ask how do I feel about my birthday now? (a much better question then "how do you feel now that you are a year older?" lol) I would say that I still feel kind of the same :( I'm still a year older.. but I have to admit that I had a great birthday celebration, both days were great and I was actually sad when the day ended, after all April 10 only comes once a year.. But I thank everyone who made this day special :)



Happy Birthday to Me!!

Easter Sunday

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, one of my favorite Holydays! I am not sure why it is, but it might have to do with the fact that Easter always falls around my birthday as well as my little brother's birthday. So when I was younger my Mom would always organize our birthday parties together and have it be a birthday/Easter Egg hunt. *Fun times :)


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But of course as I got older I realized that Easter really isn't about the bunny and the chocolate eggs(although i still love them!) But Easter has a deeper and much more important meaning... As we call it at my church Resurection Day.

So I did some research to find out where the word Easter came from and I found out that it originated from the Anglo-Saxon word Eastre. Eastre was a was a pagan goddess, the goddess of spring, who symbolized new the life that came along with the spring season. When Christians came through Europe they took the pagan celebration and linked it to the resurection of Christ which which went right along with the idea of new life or new begining. Ok I completely went of topic! lol, well at least now you know the origine of the word Easter.

Now back to the task at hand.. so what is the meaning of Easter or Resurection Day? and why is it so important? Well I always knew that it was imporant because Easter is the celebration of Jesus' rising from the dead after his cricifiction to go back to his father. But I was reminded or maybe even taught for the first time the true importance of his resurection. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15;

"If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."
versus, 14. "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins" versus 17.

How powerful is this? As Christians we always put so much importance on the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins but we can't just stop there! Because if he had just died and stayed in the tomb then how diffirent would his death had been from any other man's death?? But thank God the story doesn't end there; He died on the cross for our sins and ROSE again so that we may live in our sins NO more! And to top it all He's alive! So yes it is a new beginning! A new life in Christ! A life where sin has no power over me, I may trip and fall... actually I will trip and fall, but at least I have faith and the assurence that in Christ Jesus, who was crucified on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead so I that may have eternal life in Him, will help me get back up!! What a wonderful truth to be reminded of on Easter Sunday!


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Happy Easter!

I'll hold your hand...

Sounds like such a simple phrase.. Something we've all heard and probably have all said to someone at some point.But let me tell you that this phrase is a loaded one!


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I don't mean to get all deep or emotional about it because in some cases this phrase can be taken very literally. For example, when a mother tells her child to hold her hand as they are about to cross the street.

But lets be real when we say or hear it from someone it usually has a much deeper meaning... And that's when the trouble start, when we say things that have the potential to have a stronger meaning without really thinking about... And we've all done myself included sometimes without even noticing it..

But when these few words are said in the right context to the right person.. and when it actually happens.. it creates magical moments.. happy memories to hold on to forever!

I must say though that I am not just referring to romantic situations, far from that actually... In my experience it was the last true memory I had; a faint yet full of hope hand squeeze.. And no it was not from a significant other.

As you see this phrase "I'll hold your hand" as simple and commonly used as it is can hold so much meaning. So my advice.. don't say it if you don't mean.. But when it's said to you, don't shy away from it instead embrace and enjoy the moment!:)

Creating a New path...

As I promised here is my first picture! I figured that it would a good idea to relate my first picture to the theme of this blog; A Fresh Beginning . When I think of a fresh beginning i think of new start. I think of starting over with a new and better beginning.

As much as I don't really like change I have to admit that new beginnings are always exciting!! it's a time to change your outlook on a situation or even life as a whole. So what better way to start something new by creating a new path..

The picture above is a picture of an outside stairway that I took last weekend at Blue Mountain Retreat Center. I actually took it for my photography class assignment which was titled the architecture and designs of pictures. For the assignment I had to take pictures of different designs. This photo would be qualified as symmetry because of the shape of the stairway, and repetition because of the repetition of each stair. Of course I also did some photoshop work on the picture since the class focuses on black and white art.

So far this pictures is one of my favorite photos as it can symbolize different things depending on how you look at it. For me it is a representation of my path to a fresh beginning :)

Double Purpose!

So I realized today that I have only been using my blog as diary or a thought organizer, forgetting that this blog initially had two purposes; to be used as a diary and as a canvas...

Well it's time to bring out my paint brushes and show you what I have been working on! lol. Of course I can't just blur it all out at once so I'm going to ask you to be a bit more patient as I put some order to my photographs and start posting them. But stay tuned as it should not be too long before I start posting some beautiful photos!!

Confusion

To be confused is not a foreign concept to me. I think that most of young adult life I've been confused about one thing or another. Whether it be what college to attend, what major to pick, what career to look into, which boy to date and which boy not to date, whether to break up or try harder, move back to Belgium or stay here, ... and the list goes on and on and on.... Come to think of it I'm probably the worst decision maker ever!

So why might this be? Well I thought about it for a while and I came to realize that maybe it's due to the fact that I am some what of a perfectionist; I like to plan things and like for them to go as planned. In addition, I hate failures and I don't like to start over.. I cannot stand to feel like I've wasted my time because I went down the wrong path..

But with all that said, I'm starting to wonder if I haven't gotten so used to being confuse that I actually like to be in that state of mind. It sounds crazy (I mean who wants to be confused??), but think about it for a minute... Being confused gives you leeway.. it allows you to do or not do something and then blame on the fact that you are/were confused. Confusion allows you to shy away from decisions; you can say, "well I won't make any decisions until I'm sure of the right decision to make". But this could be a recipe for disaster! Because it could weeks, months, years, if ever to come come with the "right decision"..

So I can't help but wonder if people are ever sure what the right choice is before they make a decision... Maybe the challenge in life is not the make the right decision, but to have enough trust or faith in your judgement to simply make a decision and hope that it works out for the best.