Water

What is water? Generally speaking, it is the essence of life. Without it, we, quite literally, cannot live. In David Foster Wallace’s speech, “This is Water,” he speaks of water being all around us at all times; in other words, it is a state in which we are always living even if we do not acknowledge it. What an interesting thought to have! What is always around me even if I do not acknowledge it? The first thing that comes to mind is the air that I breathe, which I understand is not the prompt, but the very next thing that comes to mind is the feeling of getting a breath.

There are these special times that I notice how loved I am, and it feels like a breath of fresh, clean air. This past summer, I snapped a couple of photos during these special times to make them last forever. Photography is more than an art form to me. It’s the medium that gives me this ability to capture my water – to bottle it up and put it on a shelf. When I read this prompt, I couldn’t help but look through the pictures that I’ve taken in the past 6 months. Those people are my water. Whenever I am with them, even if it’s just at a house late at night with only words to exchange, I get this breathe of fresh air that always seems to be necessary. It refreshes my symbolic lungs when they seem to be on their last legs, so to speak.

I love being able to capture the things in life that help me breathe. This is not to say that I don’t acknowledge the things in life that take that breath away. It is important to recognize those times in life. I just chose to swim through them instead of bottling them up to keep.