Essay 1 Rough Draft

          Now I know when you first glance at this picture you don’t see much, but there's a lot more behind a simple picture, like the saying goes "a picture speaks a thousand words." Photographs can tell a story. Once photo can be of a slight occurrence, but the accumulation of pictures you have begins to reveal pieces of consistent themes and patterns in your life. And this is one I chose to tell about because it was one of the most important days in my life so far. It's a picture of my sister and I before my graduation last year. To some people, graduating may not be that big of a deal. It wasn't to me until someone came into my life and made me realize all the things I have, and the potential I have to succeed. I never cared about school, I never thought I was going to graduate; I had extremely low expectations of myself and found myself getting nowhere. 

     I struggled through school my entire life. Since I could remember. And when I finally got to high school, it started out just like a regular year until I figured out all the needs you have to meet to be able to graduate. And this never actually set in my mind until about my senior year a few months in. A little late, yeah I barely made it. I almost dropped out and just thought the hell with it; I can go get my GED. Thank God, my mom never let me do that because I would of regretted it. No diploma, and I wouldn't have been able to walk the stage with all my friends which for some was the last time I was going to see a lot of them. Walking across the stage with my entire family in the stands seeing what I've accomplished and seeing how proud they all were of me made me feel extrememly special. If I were to of dropped out I gurauntee they wouldn't of treated me the same. This picture and my diploma hold a major amount of significance to me and it will for the rest of my life.

      Looking at this picture brings back so many good emotions for me, one because, I love my sister with everything I am, she's my best friend, my other half and she means the entire world to me. Another reason is because I waited so long for something I thought I'd never have which is my cap and gown. Because for me, little did I know how much significance that day would hold for me. I felt like I accomplished something. I finished something I started which is also something I never found myself doing much, but now that I did that, I’ve gotten so much better at it. When I look at this picture so many events and accomplishments come to my mind and I cant help but smile. I can now look at myself literally, I think about it everyday, it's always something in the back of my mind and its the fact that growing up, I was the trouble maker kid that mom's "hated." And my sister grew up with so many good things always accomplishing different things that my mom would always be so proud of her and I never found my mom being proud of me. And when I graduated, I had something. She waited just as long as I did and she's the reason I made it through. Even though she wasn't necessarily all there for me, I knew it's something she wanted; to see her kid walk the stage and so I did it with that in mind. Now I feel like my mom thinks more of me, and that I can do what I put my heart into as long as I follow through.

            Many pictures can tell a lot more then meets the eye. A lot of them hold a great amount of significance to the photographer or the person or people in the picture and it can be interesting to know what a picture really means to someone in full depth. Knowing that I graduated and looking at this picture gives me a sense of how I've developed as a person over the years and how I shouldn't have low expectations of myself because I can acheive what I want with the resources I have, and the willingness to go beyond my potential and do better then my best.