“You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living, breathing screaming invitation to believe better things”
– Jamie Tworkowski (Founder of To Write Love On Her Arms)

For a long time, I believed that I didn’t need people. That I could make it on my own and fight my battles without help from anyone. I convinced myself that I was doing okay and I didn’t need anything else. It wasn’t until I met some incredible people (through photography) that I realized that we all need other people. We’re not superheroes. It’s okay to ask for help, and it’s okay to let people see you when you’re vulnerable. That those who care about you will help you up. And sometimes, they’ll tell you things you don’t want to hear, but you would both know that you need to hear them. Take it and think about it – sometimes people notice things about us that we’d never notice. And more importantly, never take it as an attack. I know it’s easy to get defensive when you hear something you don’t like, so think before you react.
I used to be a hermit. After graduating from university, I took a year off and stayed home most of the time. I read a lot of books but that’s pretty much all I did. I avoided going out or seeing friends, because I felt safe. In a way I felt like interacting with people would only end up hurting me.

And it does, sometimes. I’m not going to lie and say that everything is always easy. But what makes things easier is having faith and believing in people. I choose to see the good in everyone. And having wonderful friends helps, a lot.
So reach out, call a friend, ask for help. It’s okay to need other people.

Last week’s theme for the 52 Week Project was hair. I don’t think I need to tell you that I did not want to do it. And I was tempted to cheat and find a new theme but I didn’t so yay! Here it is, 7/52:

For those who don’t know, the hard drive that contained ALL my work crashed. I’m getting it fixed but I had no backups, so all my stock images and textures are gone (for now). So for this image, I used Brooke Shaden’s textures, and my friend, TJ, sent me some cloud pictures to use for my work.

This week’s theme is (drum roll): black and white.
Now that‘s going to be a challenge. I love colors 😦 haha

2014-2017 52 Week Project Thoughts 52 week project amani alshaali fine art photographer fine art photography friends photography photography project photoshop photoshop edit shaden textures thoughts to write love on her arms TWLOHA