Skip to content

Our Way Out West

Get out there, folks.

Home
About
- About Me
- About OWOW
Photo Journal
Portfolio
Contact

Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Instagram
Pinterest
YouTube

Search

Search for:

Thank You

This blog is a perpetual work-in-progress. Any feedback is appreciated so feel free to contact me using the tab above. Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Contact

Feel free to contact me with inquiries, questions, suggestions, or anything of the sort. If you have something to say, I’d love to hear it.

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Instagram

🏙🌱🌃6 in Chi🌃🌲🏙 • Today marks 6 months since I moved to Chicago. I could write a long reflection about my time here so far, but I have studying to do so I’ll try to be concise. • It’s been an incredibly difficult 6 months: adjusting to a workload I’ve never experienced, making new friends in a new city, dealing with the death of a parent from afar, and so much more. But I’ve done it so far. And I’m still here. I’m still standing. I’m still learning. And I’m damn proud of that. • I have so much to be thankful for here in my new city. Opportunities I’d never have had if I hadn’t moved. Friends I’ve made that’ll be in my life forever. Knowledge I’ve acquired that’ll apply to my future career as a PA. I’m truly so grateful for everyone and everything that has helped me grow where I’m currently planted. And I’m excited for the time I have left here. • I love this city. And even though it’s really, really hard being here sometimes, I know I’m right where I’m meant to be. • “It might be time for you to go. It might be time for you to change, to shine out. I want to repeat one word for you: leave. Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it?”

🌞🎒🏔Sunrise in Patagonia🏔🎒🌞 • #Patagonia #LosGlaciares #ElChalten #FitzRoy #Argentina #Rios

My stepmom, Heather West, was diagnosed with stage IV cancer 1 year and 5 months ago. She fought and she fought, resting when she could. With her time left, she and my dad traveled to some new places she’d never been and to some of their long time favorites as well. She never stopped living the fullest life she possibly could. She squeezed every last drop out of this world and made sure to fuel it along the way with lots of laughter and LOTS of love. • She loved animals. She loved the color green. She loved cherries. She loved helping. She loved singing Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks. She loved camping, and rodeos, and the great outdoors. She loved to make coffee at 4 AM before the boys and her left the trailer to post up on the hill during hunting season. She loved driving into Rocky to listen to the elk bugle. • She loved her God. She walked in His footsteps with all of her actions and even shared a birthday with His Son. She loved her friends, of which there were MANY. • She loved her sons endlessly. The three that her husband already had coming in to their partnership. And the one they would create together. She loved them so, so much and was so incredibly proud of the men they all have grown up to be. • And she loved her husband, her best friend, her partner in life, and as she called him, “friend of her soul”. She loved him more than words could ever possibly describe or than actions could ever convey. • Heather loved many things because she loved to care. She poured every fiber of her being into the things she was passionate about and did so with genuine tenacity, voraciousness, loyalty, and love. And everyone who was lucky enough to cross her path felt that love, that energy, that light. • Heather was an amazing woman and the best damn stepmom I could ever imagine. I miss her already and will continue to miss her every single day. But I am also so incredibly honored and grateful to call her my parent and to have spent as much time, shared as many memories, as I did while we walked the same earth. Truly one of the strongest, most beautiful, and pure souls I will ever know. • Rest easy, heath. I love you to infinite and beyond💚 • 12/25/69 - 9/24/19

Tell the people you love the things you want to tell them. Don’t wait. Tell them now. Remind them of that funny memory you shared. Tell them how important they are to you. Tell them all the things you love about them from the way they squeeze you when you hug to the way they smile or snort when they laugh. Tell them everything. Tell them now. Because you won’t always know when will be the last time you see them. And you don’t know when you won’t have time left to say all the things you want them to hear. • I tried to say as much as I could in our final conversations, hoping it felt like enough. We can try to do as I said above. Try to text that person every chance you get, try to call them to hear their voice when you are able, try to sit down and laugh or cry with them if you’re lucky enough to be in their physical presence. But even so, is there truly ever enough time to spend with someone you love? • In one of those final conversations I had with you between moments of fleeting lucidity, you may have said it best... • “I don’t know how to tell you everything I want you to hear when I just don’t have the time left.” • So heather, to some point, all the words I wish I had said to you and those you wanted to tell me but we just didn’t have the time, they will have to be found in all those moments we shared throughout the life I’ve been so fortunate to live with you here on this earth. I’ll feel them when a memory of ours pops into my head or when I think of how you always lived and led with your love. • Thank you for being my dad’s best friend, his partner in life. Thank you for bringing my little brother into this world. Thank you for taking on 3 rowdy boys at the age of 26 and being another mother to Taylor, Cale, and myself. And thank you, heather, for sharing your radiance, your light, with me and with my family and with every single person you met along the way. I love you I love you I love you I love you. To infinite and beyond, I love you. • You’ll be resting soon, and I hope to hear from you then, -ev💚 • 📷: @photographybydesiree

I’m really stressed and don’t have time to be looking at photos of calmer days but I’m convincing myself that it’s helping me even though it’s probably just making everything worse. If anyone can trade me their brain for the next year, that would be tight cause I think mine is broken. If you don’t wanna give me your noggin, then just any tips on things you do to calm your nerves/anxiety/mind-racing would be very much appreciated thank you • 📷 1 & 2: view of the Green River from Island in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park as a storm rolls over • 📷 3: view of this neat little mesa from my campsite on some tucked away BLM land

The best people in the best place celebrating the best couple @amandagossman and @jay_sun_shark_doodoododoodoodo on the best September day. Love you all so much 💙 • Missing photos of my brother, Katie, and momma but they know I love them too 🤟

Categories

Blog
Hiking
Nonsense
Photo Journal
Reflection
Travel
Uncategorized

Logo Credit

Logos made with logomakr.com

Powered by WordPress.com.