Hello and welcome to my first blog. My name is Agalelei (Lei) and to be quite honest, im pretty nervous. It’s a first blog post, so what should i write about? Okay… sigh. A little autobiography doesn’t hurt..
I want to first thank our Heavenly Father for this beautiful day to live and breathe. My journey starts when I was born and raised in American Samoa, in a small, beautiful island called Aunu’u (Paradise Island). I lived there all my life, until January 17, 2001 my Aunt Soa paid for my mom, brother and I to come to America. Upon arriving at our gate in LAX, we were greeted by my dad and Aunt Soa. I haven’t seen my dad for months and to be able to reunite was a blessing. There, we lived in Long Beach with Aunt Soa for about a year and I attended 3rd grade at Star King Elementary School with my brother. I loved going to school and learn new things, especially English. Back home in Aunu’u I learned a little bit of English, but now that I was in America I really have to learn it. So yeah, it was hard. I remembered one day my class and I went to the library to checkout books and I pulled out one book from the shelf and I put it back. Unfortunately I had put it back with the bind facing in. The librarian saw what I did and came over to tell me that I need to put the book back correctly. Literally, I stared at her like a lost puppy, then one of my classmates helped me fix my wrong. Later into the school year I became the class clown somehow, I guess my fobiness made the students laugh. Overall, it was pretty cool to finally have friends.
We moved to San Diego a year later because my dad’s job was there and so, that means; new school, new friends and new environment. I attended Encanto Elementary school for my 4th and 5th year. My fourth grade year was totally awesome because I had the best teacher. She was the sweetest lady ever. I can’t remember her name, but I remember she had the short bob-haircut. She reminded me of Ms. Honey from Matilda, so imma call her Ms. Honey. Halfway through the semester Ms. Honey, her husband and daughter moved to Little Rock,Ill. I was really sad to see her move, but i was very anxious to meet our new teacher. It turns out he was just as awesome as Ms. Honey. Fifth grade was pretty awesome too because it was my last year at an elementary school and I was ready to grow up. My fifth grade teacher Ms. Johnson also moved which was kind of weird, but her replacement was actually much better. A lot happened that year but it was also the year that I started violin lessons but that didn’t last long either. Finally , I was graduating from 5th grade and moving to middle school. I was super excited for graduation day but not my outfit dad suggested for me to wear. Gosh! But anyways, Those years were memorable.
After graduating from elementary school I was excited to grow up and be a teenager. Then in 2004 another tiny human being was added to our family. She was the cutest baby I have ever seen. We named her Patience and she was the most imporsant little person in the world to me. I wanted to be the best big sister to her. At that time I was attending O’ffarrell Middle School and there I met my best friend Maelyn T. We was in the same classes and she was the only friend I had. Until we had to move again! This time it was somewhere much farther: Washington. No, not Washington DC, but Seattle, Washington You know, the rainy state, where Edward and Bella met. Off course I didn’t want to move to a different state. This means new school, new friends and new environment. My Uncle J, my moms brother, came down to drive with us to Washington. It was the first time i met him. I was his partner for much of the way. Washington wasn’t so bad than i thought. The green trees and fresh rain reminded me of back home.
Over the years I have immersed myself with so many activities that others thought i was a natural. But it took me years to figure out that i had a passion in photography. Honestly photography was never in my vocabulary until maybe 3 or 4 years ago. My first camera was one of those Kodak disposable cameras with the film and you wouldn’t be able to see anything until the film were developed. About two years ago I started taking lessons with a mentor about computers and cameras. He had his own business and i took an interest and wanted to learn a few things. I learned a lot of things from him and i became more interested with photography.
I was really excited to finally get my own professional camera.
This blog is basically my journey as a passionate photographer with little expertise but i am determined to learn a lot of things on the way.
agalelei 