Abby Wambach Commencement Address 2018

Thoughts & Rantings

I watched a video today of Abby Wambach giving the commencement address to an American Uni. Ive linked it below so you can watch it too!!

If you dont know Abby she is an american soccer player (football to you and me).  She’s a great public speaker. She was so so great at this event..

Ive been thinking about it all day

Abby starts by talking about change. How when one time of your life finishes and another one begins, transition periods.  As a classic introvert transition periods scare the living daylights out of me.  Who’s with me ?? Do you like change ?

As the years have progressed i have faced many transition periods, career, travelling, marriage, children.  Each one i stepped into agitated and anxious. But you know what i survived !! Somedays i crashed and burned other days i just survived. I had 4 babies in 3 years, it was a war zone for the longest time. However we survived, I survived.

Looking back on those times I have so many of the feelings. Love, joy, exhaustion and my beloved anxiety.  When you are deep in the soup of life its difficult to see the moments of joy.  But joy is in the hundreds of normal Wednesdays when we potter as a family. Joy is when the day is over, the kids are safe and sleeping and the house is quiet. You dont know when you are living the moments of joy, its only when its gone, do you realise.

So Abby Wambach’s Commencement address got me thinking about joy and how we do we appreciate it while we are living it?  How do we appreciate our joy?

I appreciate my joy when i have my camera in my hand.  Years ago I found when i had my camera i felt less anxious being out in social occasions. So my camera came with me everywhere. It was a huge bulky SLR and i needed an extra bag for my films. Which wouldn’t be a big deal but im not a bag person. I leave the house with my keys, money and phone all stuffed into my pockets.  But the thought of having to socialise without my camera was to much to bear.

So what was a tool to help me cope became my window to joy. Id always be on the look out for natural moments with my friends. Those moments of joy and laughter, or a quiet corner with 2 heads together. Emotion.  However the emotion im looking for is joy, i could never be a war photographer. I couldn’t frame a shot filled with pain, it would be just too difficult.  So i began to look for the ordinary moments filled with joy. Then id head off to uni and develop the film. Seeing those images of my friends being happy and laughing come to life brought ME so much joy.

Id then pop them into an album and pass them around the branch, i used to work for a huge bank in the city centre. Facebook wasn’t around in those days, i had to hand out the physical photographs!!!!  The albums always came back empty because everyone saw the pictures and kept the ones they liked.

I like to think that sometimes when they are looking through old books, or paperwork. One of my images will appear. It will be an image of them being in the moment, being joyful and not even realising it.

Capture your everyday moments guys because they will turn out to be your joyful ones.

Mel xxx

have a look at my blog if you have an few minutes and fancy seeing someones else’s joy CLICK HERE xx

Abby Wambach Commencement Address 2018

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