June 2018

A photographic journey of watching my oldest daughter grow up through her first experience flying, and flying alone at that.

It’s difficult to tell who this person is in front of me or where she came from. Of course every parent knows the way that childhood slips right through your hands like sand while you’re grasping for your sanity on a daily basis. Somehow between all of these doctor appointments, school festivals, birthday rock climbing lock-ins, class camping trips, and soccer try-outs we got here. Right here.

It’s not lost on me that I was barely 18 when Hanie was born and here she is in front of me rapidly approaching the same age. I can see she faces similar challenges that I did and yet, she has also arrived here, on the edge of adulthood and independence on much more solid ground.

From my perspective she is self assured, she is strong, she knows about the grander world and she feels comfortable exploring it freely. She is all the best parts of me but in stronger ways and more herself than I ever could have guessed when I first greeted her 16 years ago. She is moving far away from the carefree innocence of childhood and into the strength of making her own space in this world.

Flying at this age was never an opportunity I had, and waking at 3:30 am to escort her to the airport was as exciting as if I were doing it myself. But she is calm, cool, and collected. She makes her way through security like she’s done it a hundred times. She sits at the gate with the cool disinterest of someone who has seen it all. We both know she is about to have the adventure of both our lifetimes exploring the Lake Tahoe region.

Who is this person? She is my daughter. She is wonderful. She is a force to be reckoned with in this world.

This is Hanie.

And she flies.