Tag: family

#11

aconway17

There are some days I miss my old dog more than others. Yesterday was one of those days, when the dog my family has now bit the living daylights out of my hand because she was hiding something from me under the couch. Well, to put it simply, I have four cuts on my hand now from her. So, I miss my old dog, because he would never have done something like this. He wasn’t always the nicest dog in the world and for a while, my older brother and I were scared of him. But after he started getting older, we realized he didn’t have much more time on their Earth and started to hang out with him more.

I remember one time when I think I was in fourth grade, Freddy was sitting in his favorite spot on the stairs and I was reading a book about dogs in the living room. I got up from the couch and sat next to him and we read together. It’s not something special or unique, but I miss these times where I could just be around him and pet him or just sit by him.

I liked the chill moments, but my dad’s favorite thing about Freddy is the fact that he could go on five miles walks in forest preserves if he wanted to. My dad would always drag all of us out on like a Saturday and go on big walks with him. I always hated these walks because I hate exercise, but that’s besides the point. Freddy was perfect to us, even if he wasn’t to everyone else.

When Freddy passed away, it was a hard time for my family. It wasn’t the first time I had experienced death of a loved one, but Freddy was my dog and I saw him every single day of my life until I didn’t anymore. But all dogs go to heaven. I don’t believe much in religion, but I do believe in that. Freddy went to heaven where my grandpa, great grandma, and her dog were waiting. I know they are all together looking down on us watching us get older. In this time, more of my family has gone up to heaven, but I know Freddy is welcoming them just like he did to every person that entered our house.

When we said goodbye to Freddy on his last day on Earth, it was hard for all of us. I don’t know if Freddy knew what was happening, but he was confused. We gave him brownies, steak, hot dogs, and everything he loved or could never have but always wanted. He was happy to be experiencing all these new things that I can say for sure he loved. But it is still hard to say goodbye to the ones you love. Freddy was sick and in constant pain, so we were doing the right thing, but that doesn’t make it any easier. But when I think back to him now, I said a ‘see you later’ to him, not a goodbye. Because one day I will get to see him again I am so excited to see him when I do.

#6

aconway17

I have always been a fan of taking pictures. It captures a moment that I probably won’t be able to remember because I have the memory of a goldfish. But pictures are important to me in a couple of different ways.

My dad is notorious for getting lost when we go on vacation as a family because he is always caught up taking pictures of everything. My family and I recently went to Spain. My dad was taking pictures of something and I asked him to take a picture of something and then another thing and then yet another thing. After a little bit of me doing that he pulled out a small digital camera and said “you can take picture too you know”. So I started taking pictures and instead of my dad getting lost from taking too many pictures to count, it was my dad and I getting lost. We got to bond through something we both found really fun and it was probably the best vacation I had.

I also did photography in high school. It was probably the only part of high school I actually liked. I had so much fun in these classes because I got to take pictures of nature, my friends, weird projects, etc. By far my favorite things to take pictures of was nature. But one year I was in AP photography and my teacher wanted to challenge me, so he said I couldn’t just take pictures of nature, I had to tie something more into it. This challenged me because I’m not the biggest fan of taking pictures of people because it’s hard to tell someone to do something that you’ve imagined in your head. So, I decided to start taking self-portraits within nature. At first I was nervous to take pictures of myself because I wasn’t that confident and didn’t want anyone to make fun of me. But as I started to take more self-portraits and I started winning prizes for my pictures, I started to gain more confidence. I learned a lot about myself through photography and honestly the only reason I can remember this is because it is captured in a photo.