Avery wanted to tag along with me while I finished up on an assignment in my Photography 101 class. Avery is the thirteen year old brother of my friend Ce'dric who died a couple months back (Broken Heart Suicide blog). He has gone a few times before when I was out shooting pictures for my college class and each time he seems to get more interested in the whole scene. I use city parks and cemetery's for my projects, mostly because parks have the pretty flowers and trees and cemetery's give you a lot of nature at its best, minus the technology I can't seem to get out of my way of taking pictures of nature and all its beauty. So we loaded up our backpacks and camera's and headed out for the day.
We headed to Granary Burying Ground, the third oldest burying grounds in Boston MA. A short ride for us but there was enough time for Avery to tell me his worst subject in school is History because "who cares what happened before my family was here." When he asked me mine I was tempted to argue that point with him but just responded the way everyone would expect me to "Spanish, all 6 years of it." We talk a bit more about how school is going for him, and Adrian, his ten year old brother. "It's hard without mom and Cedric", he says, "I know dad is tired, we help as much as we can. It's just hard." What do you tell the brother who is missing his brother and mother so badly? "I know Avery, I know exactly what you are feeling."
We grab our backpacks and camera's and walk into the park. I stop and point to the building across the street. "That's the Suffolk Law School" , I tell Avery, "before Ceddy met Alana, he used to tell girls he was a law student there, just to get their attention." We laughed, once again, as we were doing more and more when we talked about Ce'dric and how he was on earth. "Please tell me there is not a Suffolk History School someone will want me to go to," Avery said. "Well if you do," I told him, don't try to impress girls with it, they don't like history either."
We spent about two hours inside the burying ground, snapping shots of anything and everything we found of interest. It was nice seeing Avery interested in this project of mine, refreshing to watch him focus on something in life besides the deaths that took him off guard at such a young age. I showed him the grave of some of the more prominent people of the Boston area. John Phillips 1770 - 1823, Bostons first city mayor. Samuel Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence 1722 - 1803. Paul Revere, Revolutionary War Patriot 1735 - 1888. Phillis Wheatley, 1753 - 1784 First African American poet and first African American women to ever publish a book. Five victims of the Boston Massacre which occurred March 5, 1770.
Avery listened to my stories of the people who were buried at this cemetery as we visited their grave sites. I could tell he was listening well by the questions he would ask me. As we finished snapping pictures and worked our way towards the exit to head back home Avery told me thanks for letting him tag a long and thanks for telling him the stories about those people, it made the visit more fun and more interesting. I could not resist commenting to him, "Do you mean all that history buried in the graves of those people?" Avery looked up at me with a big grin. "Well it didn't feel like history Jett."
History is life and history is death. The past is history, the present will be history tomorrow and tomorrows history is what happens today. We don't often think about our actions and the history it leaves behind us. I hoped that Avery had a better understanding of how important history is to our future. There is so much history behind us that we will never know all of it. I told Avery about how Ce'dric and us guys used the phrase "History in the making" when one of us decided to do something so stupid it would certainly never be repeated again in history. "I guess I like History when its fun," he commented, "like today was real fun for me."
I dropped Avery off at his house, made sure he was OK since it would be about an hour before his dad was home and a couple hours before his little brother Adrian would be home. He assured me he would fine and if he needed anything he would give me a call. Avery thanked me for letting him hang out this weekend with me for a bit. For letting him use a camera and keep it for a while so he can take some more pictures. I thanked him for wanting to be in my life and for listening to me ramble on about history and death and for not getting creeped out about my trips to cemetery's. We said our goodbyes and I drove off, heading home to review the history of the pictures on my camera.
I'm pretty sure Avery and his brother Adrian will be my life long little brothers and frankly, I don't mind. I consider them a parting gift to me from my friend Ce'dric, just like the friends my brother Joey left me when he died. Jake (who I call my dad) and Mikey (who was Joey's best friend). It's crazy amazing to me how the Circle of Life brings others into our lives. I would have known Jake and Mikey even if Joey had not died, but they would not be in my life in the manner they currently are. It is the same with Ce'dric, had he not ended his journey on earth, Avery and Adrian would not be reaching out to me like they do. When I stop and think about how people have entered into my life it makes me believe in miracles. I am thankful for all the people who came, have come, and are yet to come and join me on my journey no matter how they all came into my life. Each one has provided me with history of the past, making history each day, and will be with me as history is made in the future.
Simply put ... we are making history ... one day at a time.
We headed to Granary Burying Ground, the third oldest burying grounds in Boston MA. A short ride for us but there was enough time for Avery to tell me his worst subject in school is History because "who cares what happened before my family was here." When he asked me mine I was tempted to argue that point with him but just responded the way everyone would expect me to "Spanish, all 6 years of it." We talk a bit more about how school is going for him, and Adrian, his ten year old brother. "It's hard without mom and Cedric", he says, "I know dad is tired, we help as much as we can. It's just hard." What do you tell the brother who is missing his brother and mother so badly? "I know Avery, I know exactly what you are feeling."
We grab our backpacks and camera's and walk into the park. I stop and point to the building across the street. "That's the Suffolk Law School" , I tell Avery, "before Ceddy met Alana, he used to tell girls he was a law student there, just to get their attention." We laughed, once again, as we were doing more and more when we talked about Ce'dric and how he was on earth. "Please tell me there is not a Suffolk History School someone will want me to go to," Avery said. "Well if you do," I told him, don't try to impress girls with it, they don't like history either."
We spent about two hours inside the burying ground, snapping shots of anything and everything we found of interest. It was nice seeing Avery interested in this project of mine, refreshing to watch him focus on something in life besides the deaths that took him off guard at such a young age. I showed him the grave of some of the more prominent people of the Boston area. John Phillips 1770 - 1823, Bostons first city mayor. Samuel Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence 1722 - 1803. Paul Revere, Revolutionary War Patriot 1735 - 1888. Phillis Wheatley, 1753 - 1784 First African American poet and first African American women to ever publish a book. Five victims of the Boston Massacre which occurred March 5, 1770.
Avery listened to my stories of the people who were buried at this cemetery as we visited their grave sites. I could tell he was listening well by the questions he would ask me. As we finished snapping pictures and worked our way towards the exit to head back home Avery told me thanks for letting him tag a long and thanks for telling him the stories about those people, it made the visit more fun and more interesting. I could not resist commenting to him, "Do you mean all that history buried in the graves of those people?" Avery looked up at me with a big grin. "Well it didn't feel like history Jett."
History is life and history is death. The past is history, the present will be history tomorrow and tomorrows history is what happens today. We don't often think about our actions and the history it leaves behind us. I hoped that Avery had a better understanding of how important history is to our future. There is so much history behind us that we will never know all of it. I told Avery about how Ce'dric and us guys used the phrase "History in the making" when one of us decided to do something so stupid it would certainly never be repeated again in history. "I guess I like History when its fun," he commented, "like today was real fun for me."
I dropped Avery off at his house, made sure he was OK since it would be about an hour before his dad was home and a couple hours before his little brother Adrian would be home. He assured me he would fine and if he needed anything he would give me a call. Avery thanked me for letting him hang out this weekend with me for a bit. For letting him use a camera and keep it for a while so he can take some more pictures. I thanked him for wanting to be in my life and for listening to me ramble on about history and death and for not getting creeped out about my trips to cemetery's. We said our goodbyes and I drove off, heading home to review the history of the pictures on my camera.
I'm pretty sure Avery and his brother Adrian will be my life long little brothers and frankly, I don't mind. I consider them a parting gift to me from my friend Ce'dric, just like the friends my brother Joey left me when he died. Jake (who I call my dad) and Mikey (who was Joey's best friend). It's crazy amazing to me how the Circle of Life brings others into our lives. I would have known Jake and Mikey even if Joey had not died, but they would not be in my life in the manner they currently are. It is the same with Ce'dric, had he not ended his journey on earth, Avery and Adrian would not be reaching out to me like they do. When I stop and think about how people have entered into my life it makes me believe in miracles. I am thankful for all the people who came, have come, and are yet to come and join me on my journey no matter how they all came into my life. Each one has provided me with history of the past, making history each day, and will be with me as history is made in the future.
Simply put ... we are making history ... one day at a time.
