Last
week a friend asked me what “Sanderson 17” was for on my private
Facebook page? It was a reference to this which I have as my profile
pic...
Chris Sanderson was probably one of the toughest people I have ever known. I first knew him as the Philadelphia Wings backup goalie, during my stint in the wings press pool. Unfortunately during his time there, his was mostly known for scoring 2 goals in one game...on himself. His outdoor career on the was a completely different story. In the 2006 world championships, he lead the Canadian team to it's first gold medal (defeating team USA) for the first time in years. About a year later he returned to the wings as a part of the coaching staff.
In
the Fall of 2008, he suffered a seizure while driving his car one
day. After much poking and prodding, he was diagnosed with a
malignant grade IV brain tumor and was told he had less than a year
to live. Instead of just parking it in and waiting for the
inevitable, he signed up for every experimental surgery and treatment
that would have him. Not only did he beat the odds and last longer
than a year, he went back to the lacrosse world championships and in
2010 and won the silver for team Canada as the starting goalie.
After
2010, the cancer took its tool on him, but he was still looking for
treatments and procedures all the way till the end. He passed away
in late June, he pushed the prognosis of a year's life expectancy to
almost four. It's amazing what you have put your mind to...(eh...no
pun intended)
The
week Chris was in hospice care, I worked on this, just to get the
image out of my head...
Lately
I've having Katt Williams' “Life it too Mother*#$%in short!” line
going through my head and I decided it's time to get down to business
on some things I want to do in my career before it's time for me to
check out of this lifetime. First things first, what the hell do I
want to do? It's helps if you have a list, so here is mine in no
particular order or deadline. Btw this is just a small sampling of a
larger list. I have to keep a few things to myself
- teach a photo clinic at gulf photo plus
- published in national publications, at least 4x a year (I'm still working on with who)
- featured on the Wilmington, DE art loop
- Featured on the photoshelter.com blog
- shoot a world cup soccer match
- shoot the portraits of famous/semi-famous people (I'll do another post about that)
- Work with Wonderful Machine.
- Shoot an Aussie rules football game in Australia
- Shoot Carnival in Brazil
- Shoot Marti Gras in New Orleans
- Win a Pulitzer prize for photography
- have an image go viral on the Internet
I
know some are these are out there, you might even think I'm nuts.
(hell, why do you think I call my website twisted mind creations?)
But there isn't any meaning to life if you don't have goals and have
something to shoot for.
At
least that is what Chris Sanderson has taught me...
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