Photography saved my life. It wasn’t photography exactly; but the journey of taking a photograph; from the physical travel, to the heat of the action, the calm of the editing screen, and finally the interaction with the person afterwards when I show them what I have captured. I came to GFA a blank slate, waiting to discover what would define me. At first I thought it would be soccer, or something else, but when I stepped behind the lens I knew that was where I was meant to be. Photography made the world clear. Every time I travel to an event I feel like I get to know someone better, seeing a glimpse into their soul in my viewfinder. I now know them in a way that I never could have before; and when I share that image with them, it only validates what I feel like I already knew. Joan Didion wrote: "Writers are always selling someone out", and maybe photographers are the same way. Selling out the facade of their subject’s manicured public personality for one of raw reality and intense emotion. In the end, that is a much more truthful portrait of the person, they are so much more than just a posed smile while someone says “cheese”. This is what I chase. This is why photography has saved me. It has given me drive, it has given me purpose, it has kept me busy, and it has kept me sane. I have found myself within the reflection of others.