Brunch | Boston Event Photographer
I broke bread with old friends yesterday, and it was one of the best times in recent memory.
Permit me to wax nostalgic for a moment. See, I moved around a lot growing up, and then again a lot as an adult. When people ask me where I’m from, I honestly never know what to say due to all the moving. Too many states, too many differences in background to identify with only one place. To boot, my family members (mom, dad, brothers) each live in a different state from one another and from me, and V’s family is entirely in Europe. So, basically, no one group of people that I care about are all in the same spot.
In my 20s, I viewed this roaming lifestyle as an asset: I was never afraid of another move, I was comfortable in new environments, and I could relate to people from a variety of backgrounds. Now in my 30s, I feel a sense of sadness about it. I don’t feel as though I have a ‘home,’ a place where I regularly see family or people that I’ve known for more than a handful of years. While it’s definitely exciting to meet new people all the time, it’s not the same as being able to look/feel/act like yourself around people that have long shared experiences with you. And while it’s fun catching up with people from your past on Facebook, it’s not the same as sharing their lives in real-time: getting to know their partners, seeing how they’ve decorated their homes, meeting their children.
I’ve been fortunate to connect with several old friends on this recent cross country trip through Iowa, Chicago, and the East Coast, and I have been so surprised to find myself thinking about this whole rootlessness factor of my life as a hindrance rather than a resource. This past weekend really hammered it home to me. I spent hours with some truly incredible people from my past (I look forward to sharing photo shoots with them over the next few weeks), and catching a glimpse into their beautiful, fulfilling lives for only a short while was profound for me. Getting to see your friends happy, moving forward at exponential rates into marriages, child-rearing, and meaningful careers makes me beyond-words happy… and a little emotional about all the years I’d spent wandering around while everyone else was cultivating not just a life but an entire village (per se) around them.
Okay, enough waxing. Yesterday’s brunch with some of the very people I’m describing was so fun that I wanted to immediately share some of it. Michelle and Josh, hosts extraordinnaire, crafted the most amazing meal for me, V, Katie, Peter, and newborn Nico. More lovely to me than the excellent frittata (which was ridiculous), the crumbly gluten-free muffins (which I happened to go crazy over), and the detail-y ambiance (yay tulips) was the warmth at that table. The feeling of being a part of a family of friends. It was very touching to me and it was hard not to want to capture every moment.
