ok. holy shit. i don't know how to start this. i woke up at 3 a.m. this morning and drove down to the jersey shore for the sunrise. everything worked out beautifully and i am so happy with my results. i have always considered the ocean to be such a large part of who i am, so i wanted to include that in my final photo. i took so many more photos, which i promise i will post (both in the comments of this picture and over the course of the next few days). last night i looked through my entire 365, from day one up to the end. it is amazing how much i have progressed and changed over the course of the past year. i could look back at every picture, every single day, and i could remember. i read the things i had written and allowed so so many forgotten memories and hurts to come flowing back to me. so much can happen in one year. so much change. i grew. i learned. i was accepted to my dream college, which is where i will be attending in the fall. i fought a lot of personal deamons. i cried. i bought my first car. i held on to the things i believed in. i lost close friendships. i fell in love. i worked hard and saved up money. i challenged myself. i got two tattoos. i went on roadtrips. i experienced so many new things. i patched up old wounds. i lost someone who meant the world to me. i went to the ocean. when i started this project, i just wanted a reason to be proud of myself. i knew, no matter what, that i wouldnt let myself quit. i shot film self portraits for a month when my camera needed to be fixed. i went without a computer for a while and therefore without photoshop. i said that this is something i am doing solely for myself, not to please anyone else. i wanted to spend some allotment of time each day focused on photography, and through that, i cannot even express how much i have learned and changed and grown through the art. i did commissioned work, i got a 5 on my AP photography portfolio. i established a respect for myself and developed a passion which i hope will only continue to grow. i tend to get overly sentimental. i could rant like this for pages. so i'll shut up. (plus i'm tired as hell because as soon and i got home today i went to work and i'm running on my second energy drink right now.) and i want to say thank you. for the insane amount of support and flickrmail and comments and testimonials and favorites and everything. like, fuck. it means the world to me, every single view. i sware. thank you.