Change is not my friend. 
When it comes to the small things in my life like the color of my bedspread, the arrangement of the furniture, my clothing or the photos in my wall frames, I am in constant change. It makes my husband a bit batty. He wants to know why I can’t just leave things the way they are in the house.
Change with the big things in life is where I do not do so good with. A home, car, job, relationships, routines, tradition or hair color, I do not like these things to change, not one bit. I think that’s one of the reasons I don’t like to travel. I don’t like my daily/nightly environment to change to much.
I can remember as a child crying and crying when we sold our family VW Bug and got a new “used” car. It was change that was too large for me. I wanted things to stay the same and that included our VW Bug, which was apart of our family to me.
Funny thing is I now have a child who has even a more difficult time with change then I do. Kaleb cried his eyes out when were replaced the rug in his bedroom with hardwood floors. It was “HIS” rug. It was a something that he had spent hours on, playing with his toys. It was a part of his little world. A world that he did not want changed.
I have a deep longing in my life for TRADITION!
By definition, tradition is void of most change.
At three, I started Hebrew school. At ten, I learned a trade.
I hear they’ve picked a bride for me. I hope she’s pretty.
The son, the son! Tradition!
The son, the son! Tradition!
I hear they’ve picked a bride for me. I hope she’s pretty.
The son, the son! Tradition!
The son, the son! Tradition!
And who does Mama teach to mend and tend and fix,
Preparing me to marry whoever Papa picks?
Preparing me to marry whoever Papa picks?
The daughter, the daughter! Tradition!
The daughter, the daughter! Tradition!
When we got our families first VCR in 1985, we finally were able to watch “rented” movies. What a high tech item we thought we had. Only a few families on our block even owned one. As I was only 10, my parents were in charge of picking the movies we rented. They wanted to expose us to movies which were family appropriate. One of their first picks was Fiddler on the Roof.
I was in LOVE. I learned the words to every song, made up little dance routines and aked them rent it over and over again. It had struck a chord somewhere deep within me. Alright, I know the thrust of the movie is “change” but what I longed for from the story was the tradition.
Tradition feeds into my longing for a life of longstanding practices. Something you can
count on to be there and be consistant.
Sometimes we are forced into a CHANGE that we do not want.
Sometimes that change forces us to grow.
Sometimes that change was the best thing that could have happened to us.
For the past eight years I had worked as the drawing and painting fine art teacher at a high school. I loved my job! It was my dream teaching job! 
I never wanted it to change but change was around the corner.
I never wanted it to change but change was around the corner.
Because of budgets cuts the art program was to be no more.
Remember I said, I do not like big change. I like staying in one place and creating traditions there.
I put down roots pretty deep, so this was a hard event for me to swallow.
Remember I said, I do not like big change. I like staying in one place and creating traditions there.
I put down roots pretty deep, so this was a hard event for me to swallow.
Change had to happen. Change was about to push me in a direction that would benefit my life and force me to grow. 
I was offered a position teaching digital photography at a different high school. Perfect in so many respects, yet a completely new animal I would have to tackle. I had been taking on professional photography jobs for a time and had a good grasp of what I was doing in the field. Knowing what I was doing with photography and being able to teach it are two separate talents. This was not going to be a small feat.
Teachers do make up their own lesson plans, changing and morphing theme to fit their style along with the academic standards but in most of the solid subjects they have a book or two to work from and a number of other teachers within that subject to work with on assignments. With photography, I would have to reinvent the wheel.
So I rolled up my sleeves and began to figure out how I would teach photography to these young adults. This forced me to up my skills in photography and editing a lot quicker than I may have done on my own time. I needed to not “kind of” understand the finer aspects of my camera, lighting and editing, I needed to “REALLY” know it.
Going into this CHANGE, I did not want it. Having this CHANGE I am realizing is the best thing that could have happen to me both in my teaching and photography career.
Change forces one to grow.
Change made me grow.
Change forces one to grow.
Change made me grow.
Perla, your beautiful traditional Hispanic dress, fan and water jug inspired me and got me thinking about the splendor of tradition. A tradition which you and your family share and which I wish I had a small part of. The CHANGE I had allowed me to meet and get to know you. Change is good, but don’t you dare CHANGE how amazing a young woman you are. Your inner and outer beauty let up my camera and classroom.