She’s hands down the best person I’ve met in my life… hands down… I love my family and my friends but she wins the award. She is why I am here… why Erika Leigh Photography has not only made it to one year strong… but why it even exists
Tag Archives: one-year anniversary
Gabby came into my life out of selfishness on my behalf. Yep, I decided to volunteer. Volunteering is a cover up. Everyone thinks people are so grand that volunteer but I know I volunteered because maybe I wasn’t being the person I thought I should be… and I knew I would feel better after doing so. Helping is undoubtedly amazing… its healing to feel like you’ve made a difference and that’s what I mean by selfish… You help someone else but I could guess 99% of the time the person volunteering benefits more in a non-tangible way more than the person on the other end of the help. I’m by no means looking down on volunteering but I have to admit my reasoning… Volunteering with the organization called HERO for Children did what I had expected… AND THEN SOME. Gabby is my mentee… technically, but I’ll be the first to say she’s mentored me more probably than I would’ve ever mentored her.
I must say I just picked some of my most favorite quotes and loosely paired them with people… but everyone I write about I am in awe of how fitting they are to each other. Maybe it’s like horoscopes and fortune cookies… it could say the most broad statement like, ‘Some one worthwhile will come into your life’ and I sit there and think, ‘Wow… that is so true I just met this awesome bride four weeks ago.’ Blanket application, I suppose… I love that though. It’s almost a little like faith, if I can make that huge, bold comparison… sometimes you just want to believe something, sometimes it is so warming to think bigger things are at play here than just our own hard work. This quote also speaks to the faith idea… and for me, more than anything, it is in those unclear moments that faith saves me… and sometimes Alyssa does, too.
I hope all of Adam’s girlfriends get access to this at some point. Adam and I grew up putting on plays together at family functions… one particular time, during The Lion King’s peak popularity, we decided to do a few song and dance numbers for the Thanksgiving show. See this was normal in our family. We’d go to whose ever house was scheduled for the holiday, eat all the deviled eggs put out for the first round then hole up in the basement and get the show ready. I was often the lead… not because I was the oldest girl or the bossiest or the scariest… it was pure talent that won me the role every time, ok?! SERIOUSLY. I was also usually the casting director and director… hmmm, wow I was busy. 
I knew this would be my hardest to write. These write ups so far have been positive… they are about things and people that I am so lucky to have in my life. This one is about someone that will never be in my life again… equally lucky because of that. To include him is a risk… because I don’t want people to turn away from what ELP is about: fun-loving, full of life people and photography… but to not include him would be a bigger risk because it would make this list, of TRUE inspirations, a lie.
