Gramps

I've recently come to the realization that my grandparents that have passed away are not coming back, specifically Gramps, my mom's dad. This may seem like a silly thing to have just realized at 25 years old, but it's true. I'm not really sure why this is finally occurring to me now, but I have an idea that it's because...

birds...


and photography...


...have come into my life :)

Gramps was an amateur photographer and a bird lover. Photography was something that I'd always intended to take up, but I never took the step to actually embrace. There were always excuses of insufficient time, money, equipment and experience. I also thrive on being with other people and photography seemed like far too much of an individual activity to invest any time in. And birding? Well, he wasn't a lister or anything, he just liked filling the feeders in his backyard and watching the birds that came to eat. I remember learning about Baltimore Orioles from him and how oranges are their food of choice.

Fast forward to 2008 and things began to change. It was then that I decided I needed to take control of my life and the things I do in it. It's not that I was passively floating through life before, but I was working hard to try to get into medical school - so I skipped all the fun stuff in hopes of realizing that dream. Long story short, I didn't get into med school (which was for the best, in hindsight). It took a bit for me to pick myself up and decide what to do next. In the fall of '08 I got the chance to move to MI for grad school and it was then that I decided to 'take life by the horns' so to speak.

I was realizing that there were many things I 'wanted' to do, yet I made no move to actually do any them. What was I waiting for?! They were all sitting there like empty promises to myself. So, in the midst of other things, like triathlons, a marathon, and a roadtrip to the mountains, also began birding and photography.

Gramps and I had a special relationship. I was the only grand-daughter on that side of the family, so from early on I was 'Grampa's Girl'. We saw G'ma & G'pa S quite a bit, but didn't spend a whole lot of time with them. Then Grandma passed away and we started seeing Gramps all the time. He signed my brothers and I up for golf, took us out to lunch, and - wow, this memory just came back to me - bought me my first camera. It was a Nikon film P&S, nothing special, but I was on the yearbook that year and he wanted to make sure I had a good camera for that :)

There isn't anything I wouldn't give to be able to sit with him and share the pictures I've taken and talk about the birds I've seen, and those I haven't seen yet. I inherited his lenses, so all the pictures I take are truely a tribute to him. But, to sit at his kitchen table again and look out at the birds on the back deck - I can't think of any better way to spend an afternoon.

Except, maybe, attempting a 4 owl day - details to come.

:)