A few weeks prior to the publishing of this essay, I turned 33. And for my birthday, I decided to take a photo trip down to the mountains of West Virginia. - Although I didn’t go into this trip with the intention of gaining anything specific, it ended up becoming one of the most rewarding and profound photo trips yet.

Photography has become the conduit that allows me to reach that part of me so far gone. With every glowing sunrise, with every sweaty hike, at every epic overlook, with every photograph made, I feel a bit closer to that piece of me that I lost so long ago.