Ever since I was a little girl I have dreamed of going to the Statue of Liberty and New York City.  I was born in July of 1976 and my name is Liberty, how patriotic right?  I have always loved my name and all that it stands for, and I’ve always wanted to go to the REAL Statue of Liberty, and it did NOT disappoint me in any way.

A couple months ago I was flying to Utah for my brother’s wedding. They were asking for volunteers to be bumped off our flight and land a few hours later in SLC. I jumped at the opportunity when they offered over $1,000 in travel vouchers and landed 2.5 hours later than originally planned with dreams of going somewhere amazing!!

Because of scheduling, and school (and mostly because my photographer friend Kim was going to be in NYC at the same time), we scheduled a 5 day dream vacation to visit the big apple for mid-July!! I don’t know if I’ve ever been more excited about anything before in my whole life. It was a dream come true. I was able to stay at my friend Amy’s apartment {thank you Amy from the bottom of my heart, I would not have been able to do it all without you!!!}

We went to Phantom of the Opera, One World Trade Center, The 9-11 Museum and Memorial, The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, High Line Park, Chelsea Market, we saw Spiderman Far From Home, went to the Nintendo World Store {twice}, went to Brooklyn to see the Captain America statue, navigated the subway without getting lost, met Kim at Central Park for photos, walked across Brooklyn Bridge, visited the Temple and St. Patrick’s church, walked 40 miles, climbed 105 flights of stairs, burned thousands of calories, were covered in sweat and had the time of our lives!!!! {well, I did, my 20 year old son was less than excited to spend 5 whole days with his mamma, and without his computer!!}

It sounds a little dramatic, but it was life changing for me. I’ve always been an independent woman, but being able to travel to NYC, navigate everything and pay for it ALL MYSELF was such a boost to my self-esteem and gave me so much confidence. I came home feeling like I could take on the world. I’ve never really dreamed about going places because it always seemed just out of reach. Now, I feel like the dreams are endless. I have an entire lifetime of bucket list items to go and do. I have so much life to live and so many new and exciting adventures to experience, and I  might have taken 100 pictures of the statue of Liberty and it might have even made me cry when I saw her to realize that my dreams COULD become a reality!!

So, if you’re like me and your dreams seem just out of reach, I encourage you to reach farther, dream bigger, hold onto hope and get to work doing whatever it takes to make your dreams a reality. This trip was only possible because of this little photography business I’ve been working so hard to build. YOU are the reason I can dream, your support makes it possible for me to chase my dreams, to live my life and to capture so many memories on my journey.

I left a piece of my heart in New York City, and I will never be the same!!