What makes us who we are?
There are a number of answers to that question. I think we are who we are because of the experiences of our past.
All of these experiences can likely be summed up in the six most popular questions out there.
Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.
How?
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| Photos are important. If it wasn't for photos, I wouldn't have been able to show you this one. |
For those of you who may not know the person behind this blog, my name is Andre Lodder.
There are so many different things that have made me the way I am, which is why I've chosen to do this in multiple posts on my blog. I'm continuing the title "Reflections" from my last post because it sums up best what I'm doing. For most, these few posts will sort of be my introduction, but for me, it will be a reflection. A reflection of who I am and how I got to where I am today.
At some point in the next few blog posts I hope to reflect on each of the six questions, Who, What, When, Where, Why and How in no particular order. I'm choosing 'How' for my first post because it'll really just be a summary of what you can hope to see in these posts.All of the five W's are important, but in answering 'how' you are getting the gist of all the other questions. After all, these posts will be explanations of how I got to where I am today.
As you can see this photo may be few years old, and though a few things have changed since then (such as my preferred brand of beer) there's a lot that has remained the same. For instance, I still prefer eating with my hands. Up until just a few days ago I had a very similar hair cut. I'm still just as cute (if not cuter?) and yes, I probably should still be wearing a bib while I eat. Throw some peanut butter and jam on that sandwich and throw me in a Van and you'd think the picture was taken yesterday.
However, this photo alone doesn't do justice for who I am or how I got here.
There are so many different things that have gotten me to this point. I have my family and my friends; they are the 'who'.
The things I have come to learn which have grown into hobbies or activities and become as much a part of me as the hair on my head; they are the 'what'.
I've lived on this earth for nearly 23 years, in that time I have learnt so much. In the future, I hope to keep learning about others and more importantly about myself; this is the 'when'.
Home, is where you make it, whether it be in Vernon, Squamish, Belleville, Canada, or the moon. That is the 'where'.
'Why'? Well that's how life goes.
My story isn't about how I was destined to be a photographer or a journalist ever since I was a kid.
You know when you were younger, and you were asked that cliche question, "what do you want to be when you grow up? "Pretty sure I've never said I wanted to be a photojournalist. In fact I didn't even know there was such thing until six months before I entered the program.
I came to the school without an ounce of knowledge on photojournalism. Well... I guess that isn't entirely true, I knew how to turn the dial to the green square (auto setting) and press the shutter. I also knew how to form words with a pen, yet I was never much of a story teller. So how did I end up here?
I didn't know any photographers by name until I came to this program, so I don't know who could have inspired me to come. I don't think I've done any activities in particular that would have helped me to know what I'm doing here. I bought my first camera only a few years ago but I still didn't use it much. So I don't even know when it first interested me. I didn't know where to start, or why I even wanted to in the first place...
Yet I'm still here. If you put the question 'How?' into a multiple choice answer, with the choices Who, What, When, Where, and Why. I'd have to answer both None of the above, but at the same time All of the above. There isn't one single event from my past that has led me to want to be here, yet absolutely every experience has molded me into the person I am. Since I'm here, and this is something I'm interested in, that means every one of my experiences has led to photojournalism.
How I got here, is the reason I'm here.
-Andre
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