OLIVIA HAMILTON

We passed through each place so quickly; it almost doesn’t feel like it happened.

I moved to Los Angeles for the summer and drove back to Nashville in mid-August for my last year of college. It was an interesting time – leaving a place I had adored (and thought I'd hate, vapid L.A.) that I’m now considering moving back to next year; going back to Nashville, my love and favorite place, that I have to cherish while I still have it; and going to some of the most beautiful places in my country (Grand Canyon, desert) that I've never been to, with the people I've known forever (my parents).

I thought it would be cool to bring along a disposable camera and make a photo journal of this super transitional time.

First driving shift, edge of California.

My dad in front of a wildflower field just next to the highway in Williams, Arizona. They have a little downtown that the railroad to the Grand Canyon goes straight through.

YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS!!! (Grand Canyon South Rim, AZ)

When the moon (dead center) was bright on the way to New Mexico.

Vega, TX

The best thing about a drive like this is passing through all the one-horse towns with a local restaurant. This picture is from the delicious Tex-Mex place (Roosters!!) we went to in Texas. The cowskin, the Mary, the flag...it’s all there.

Also in Memphis is a very different kind of historic place, the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. This is another moment that changed American history forever, and another example of a tragic place turned into something beautiful – it’s now the location of the National Civil Rights Museum.

The last few pictures on the roll look like this. We passed through each place so quickly; it almost doesn’t feel like it happened. As exciting as it is to always be passing through somewhere new, I’m looking forward to settling in one place again, at least for a minute. To not live out of a suitcase, to shop for groceries, to put my pictures up where they can stay.