Samantha

Well, as Woody Allen famously quoted 'If you want to make God laugh tell him your plans'.

I had 'planned' my week to be a whole lot differently to how it's currently turning out. I had planned 3 days of solid office work to clear everything so that I could have my Thursday and Friday free to do some personal things. I was so excited on Sunday evening when I was planning it all out that I couldn't wait to get started. Yesterday however I could not get flowing with my workload. I got work done but not at the pace I had planned and I switched the computer off late last night frustrated and cross with myself. There has been a cold bug going around the family and I had been feeling pretty smug that I hadn't caught it but last night after feeling achey and sore most of the day I knew something wasn't right. That was confirmed when I went to bed and I ended up sleeping with my dressing gown on top of my pj's and under two duvets. And I still was shivering.

This morning I woke up feeling rotten with a yucky swollen throat so after a call to the doctors, lots of vegetable soup and bed rest I'm feeling more on my feet than what I did this morning, thankfully. So don't panic Michael and Laura, i'll be fighting fit for your wedding on Saturday! :)

ANYWAY. To feel in some way better for having to go back to bed and miss out on my workload, I got on the computer this afternoon to free up some work space. It was then I came across some of these photos I had taken of Sammy a few months ago. Sammy and I studied Media together. We were in different years and although it was 10 years ago I remember Sammy as she was back then. She was brim full of confidence and the life and soul of the party. She knew herself too. At least that's how I felt when I saw her. We weren't really friends back then because we didn't know each other very much. Things changed when she came to the house one fateful day a few years back to get reflexology from my sister.

10 years on and I am so very fond of her. I thought Sammy would be huge in the media world by now. She was full of such fire and determination. Turns out she's turned that fire and determination into midwifery. Her life took that course after a life changing trip to Ghana in 2009 with Platform2.

When these photos were taken we were in my backgarden and she was talking to me about her journey since then and what had happened in Ghana to move her to go back to college and get everything she needed to do midwifery. I was and still am in total of awe of her. Throughout all of the photos that were taken, there was something that kept bringing me back to these ones. To me, these images show Sam as she told me her story throughout our time together.

A reflective and determined force of nature.

xox