First and foremost, I need to give a shout out to my little brodie, Kevin, for a phenomenal job on my senior pictures! Thank you little brodie, I love you.)

Well here it is guys! I am graduating, And man am I pumped! As the typical Donnie I am, this is what wisdom I believe to both possess and seek to convey (hope to):

It was some years ago that my grandma told me that their existed a distinction between joy and happiness. And initially I kind of dismissed this; I thought too highly of myself, and too little of my grandma. Because upon personal reflection, now, I have found that the two are entirely not synonymous.

Happiness is fleeting, it is an emotion that can be so easily entertained. Happiness is the idea the mass believes their striving for, masqueraded as joy, but delusory; happiness is temporal.

But joy, it is as my brother so poetically put, “God’s touch”. It is this gift. It is this feeling far greater than happiness, a feeling far more profound. Joy is something I believe we all strive for. At the experience of it within a moment or a culmination of moments it is an emotion so very beautiful, yet subtly spiritual. Joy is this concept arguably equivalent to fulfillment; it is fulfilling. Though I attempt to do so, I cannot fully articulate the meaning of the word because its profoundness extends beyond explanation, it can only truly be experienced.

So, when you look at these pictures, these specific moments, (I believe) it is capturing that effervescence of joy, my joy. This picture is my embodiment of joy at the causality of the process to achieve this state. For the process, is just as pivotal. This picture captures my joy; I am currently filled with joy; and my hope is that “God’s touch” fills you.

-Mad love always, Donnie