Ashleigh Croft

On Veterans Day

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 14:34:21 -0500

My grandfather came from an incredible family. His parents immigrated to the US from Poland after the turn of the century. His father worked to help build Detroit while his mother was at home raising all of their children. Between WWI and WWII, 4 of his brothers went to war. Joe earned a Purple Heart. Leonard was in the Bataan death march. Tony paid the ultimate sacrifice at Anzio. Though he really was too young, my grandfather enlisted in the Navy. He never spoke of his service except to say he really didn’t do anything at all. He never saw action and stayed stateside the whole time.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

My grandfather was a very proud man, but he never boastful. It took planning my grandparents’ burial service to learn what he actually did during the war. He didn’t stay stateside the whole time. He was barely in America at all. He earned multiple medals and commendations. Honours of which he never spoke. Honours that make him an even more incredible man than we already knew he was.

My grandfather passed away 14 years ago this October. I still think of him every single day, but especially today. I’m so very thankful for our veterans, and I’m especially honoured and proud to be a Gruszczynski descendant.

Remembering

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:49:00 -0400

I was a high school freshman when the attacks happened. I remember seeing the first tower burning on CNN on the TV after dressing out for dance. The second plane hadn’t yet struck. My classmates weren’t paying attention, which wasn’t exactly a surprise. Current events weren’t something people in that area particularly cared about unless it was somehow related to the high school football teams. Because things were still unfolding and people were trying to figure out how such a horrible accident could’ve occurred, our teacher had us go outside for our usual warmup. We returned to our room just in time to see the second plane hit. I remember staring at the TV in shock. My classmates still didn’t see the significance of what was happening. I remember hearing them laugh, especially when our teacher started talking with another teacher about how it had to be Osama bin Laden.

When class change came, I remember looking at the faces of those I passed. I was shocked by how few seemed to understand what was happening. In my next class, geometry, we fought with our teacher to allow us to watch the coverage. It was during that class that we heard what happened just over an hour away from us in Pennsylvania. That’s when it finally seemed to begin to register with the other students just how significant the events of 11 September 2001 were. Still, a fair portion were just hoping to get to have a day off from school.

This is why I don’t really believe where I was when it happened matters. Eleven years later, I still can’t wrap my mind around how the people in my school could be so ignorant to what was happening and how our world was changing before our eyes. I still hear one classmate’s laughter as we watched the replay of people jumping from the towers. Those are memories that I don’t want to associate with that day. Those were men and women who were just expecting another day at work. They are now the brave souls who lost their lives as a result of the horrific attacks on our nation.

I choose to remember and honour the men and women who died that day and not discuss where I was then because to me, where I was is irrelevant. I just happened to be another kid in a classroom watching on TV and trying not to cry for what was happening to our country.

New Year's Eve

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:03:54 -0500

Tigers, sparklers, pulpy margaritas, and great friends. Not a bad way to send off 2011 and begin 2012.

Some pictures were taken by Matt when he absconded with my camera. It’s a pretty image heavy post.

New Year's Day

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:16:45 -0500

New Beginnings and Such

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:00:00 -0500

I’ve never been particularly good at posting personal images. As I’ve been in the beginnings of my business, I’ve gotten even worse at it. Given the fact that I am actually a photographer, this seems, well, wrong. It’s high time I start putting at least some focus back on taking personal images and following through with posting them. Since it’s a new year and all, it just seems appropriate to start now. No time like the present.

To a certain extent, this is also an exercise in developing my blogging abilities, which are truly lacking. I definitely need to improve them too. It’s such an important part of my job that I can’t let it hold me back. It’s not that I don’t like writing - quite the opposite, really. I’ve always enjoyed it. I’ve just always preferred actual writing, as in pen and paper and such. Call me old fashioned. There’s just something about taking a pen to paper that feels so much more personal than fingers to a keyboard.

So here goes a new experiment in a year that is all about renewed passion. New year, new blog, new images. Can’t go wrong there.