Patterson Pandemic Seniors Class of 2020
2020 Seniors are the first to experience this loss.
Hey, Class of 2020!
This Year didn’t turn out the way it's supposed to. You're probably feeling worried or anxious about the future. You missed out on all of the events & activities that you had planned.
I get it
But one thing I know- you deserve to be CELEBRATED.
Senior year is for senior portraits. Last time for you to play sports for your school. The last performances as a highschool student. You order your cap and gown. You probably worried about the SAT or military entrance ASVAB exam, or applied to get into your dream college or a specialty program. Maybe you were planning a big graduation party and then moving into a shared apartment with a best friend, or a road trip with a buddy. You were thinking about senior ditch day or senior assassins (and not getting caught), and senior sunset. Grad night and prom & signing yearbooks. Some of you were going to be the first one in your family to graduate and walk that stage. Others are the baby the last sibling to graduate, finally this was your time to shine. Some were supposed to be valedictorian and give a speech, along with the school president and class president. Many of you earned medals and cords to mark exceptional study. You were going to drape them around your neck, in your cap and gown.
All the events that define your senior year. Sober grad night after the graduation ceremony. The last times with your friends before your lives change forever and you go your separate ways into adulthood.
It is all gone now. You have been seeing your friends on a screen, not in person. Your times to simply hang out have disappeared and you now have to wear a mask to even go outside. Rather than planning a graduation party and figuring out who gets a ticket to attend, you now cannot see anyone and there is nothing to attend.
COVID19 is dangerous. It’s deadly. It’s taking lives around the world. It’s scary. Your parents and many grandparents have never seen anything like this. The pandemic is awful. It is changing our communities and the world.
This virus stole major milestones and events from so many. It took away time with our friends. High school seniors aren’t supposed to be home all the time. This is the year for memorable chaos. Now school is on a computer now all the teachers are online.
Some people are minimizing the losses by comparing them to the deaths caused by COVID 19.
Many seniors don't share how much this hurts because they feel selfish or they don’t want to stress parents. Their parents may already be stressed by working from home or job loss or fears for friends and family
Some seniors can't express or find the words to say what this means to them.
We can't compare losses. Nobody can tell us how to feel.
2020 Seniors are the first to experience this loss.
Talk to each other, tell you friends how awful everything feels.
Hang out together online.
Use all that creativity and all those skills that belong to only your generation. Create what you want and how you want to do it. Ask for space if you need it. Express how you feel, draw, paint, create music, rap, dance, run or write. Express those feelings in a way that works for you. Make a scrapbook or journal documenting your life or how much it has changed. Start planning your future or planning for college. Make an amazon wish list. Appreciate this life, yes this is the new normal. Thank God for another day. Pray about everything worry about nothing, be resilient. One day you will have 2020 hindsight and you will reflect on it all. Today it is all about 2020 vision, so start dreaming about your future now.
Take your big day and events back. Even if your school is not doing it, you and your friends and families can plan something to honor and celebrate you. Participate in a graduation parade in your community. Make your own graduation stage. Have your own prom. Take your senior portraits in your cap & gown. Print those pictures hang them in your house and post them on social media. The class of 2020 is making history give them something interesting to talk about.
Class of 2020, you will get through this. You have losses that can't be replaced. You will never get this time back but you can make it your time. You are the future class of 2020, you will change the world. This is still your year take it back. Live the life you want to live.
Celebrate~ Love~ Dream… Shine on!
I remember you! Memorial Day is everyday...
A parent's death makes a severe impact on a child, that then affects their own children and their children's children, and so on. First Lieutenant Russo went to UCLA, he was a track and football star. He met his wife Olga at UCLA. After graduation, they married and they started a family. He was killed in action on April 3rd, 1945 on Luzon. His death changed many lives. He left behind a wife and his one year old son. Lieutenant Russo named his son after himself, even though his Father Salvatore offered him a substantial amount of money to name the baby Salvatore after him. Lieutenant Mario Russo chose to name his son Mario after himself, in fear he may never return from war. The name Mario and photographs in a frame, were the only thing Lieutenant Russo could ever give his son. He died a hero yet he left behind loved ones now broken damaged and confused.
Little did he know that he was leaving behind a legacy as well. His future grandchildren and great grandchildren would never see him, only the photos that hang on their walls. They will only know him through the photos and stories shared by family but he is still so much a part of them. The more I learn about my grandfather Mario from my favorite Uncle Tony, he reminds me of my own children. They have followed in his footsteps in so many ways. The name Mario was a great gift to leave your son, but your family and your legacy was an even greater gift. We will continue to share our photos of our hero with the legacy he left behind. Lieutenant Russo lives on through us all. I just can't imagine how different my life would be if my grandfather was there when my father grew up. I am grateful for the photos and the stories I can share with my babies. Having these photos has taught me to appreciate and savor the past through images. I am thankful for all he has given us; veterans, intelligence, physical and mental strength, athletics, track stars. He now has great great grandchildren who will know and remember their hero through the photographs that hang on the wall, those pictures tell it all. With all that was given I sit back and watch my own daughters and one with her baby and their sacrifices they give for our country. Always remember .....All gave some, some gave all. So much sacrifice for our freedom. We all have a story to tell through photographs on the wall!
Rhonda Childers is a Military Mom and a portrait photographer in the Bay area and Central Valley, California. It is her dream to make a positive difference in this world by sharing herself and stories while creating and capturing new ones with others. 100 years from now her legacy will live on through photographs and the positive difference she makes in the life of many children.
My sailor girl
My soldier girl
10 things I realized when I lost My Mother. Happy Mothers Day
The loss of my mom has placed me in a frame of mind I was not prepared for. A mother's love is like no other. Since she has been gone, I somehow find myself feeling incomplete. She was the wind beneath my wings. My Mama has been gone 15 years. She died on Friday February 13th, 2004. I found out on Valentine's Day and it broke me heart. I miss her everyday.
I never realized my mom was not invincible until it was too late. I grew up thinking she was a superhuman being. She could do anything she was a single Mom of 4 crazy girls. As I grew up I didn’t see she was ageing, too.
Before I knew it, I watched my superhero turn into an old person. So here are 10 things I want to share with you that I realized when I lost my Mama!
1. You'll realize how much you loved them.
We never really appreciate what we have till it's gone. There is so much irony in loss. You only realize how deeply you loved someone until they aren't there anymore.
2. You'll still want to call them when something happens.
Sometimes when your phone rings you catch yourself thinking its them. Then your in tears because you realize that they aren't here anymore.
3. You'll learn parents secrets.
You'll uncover details about your parents' lives that make you uncomfortable. You'll realize that they were actually people, not just parents, and you get it now! You will understand who they are and what they did more than ever.
4. Holidays become lonely and sad
Even if you have your own family, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas and any other special day will never feel the same.
5. You will be jealous of anyone who has parents that are living.
You'll envy anyone who gets to spend time or holidays with their parents. You'll lecture anyone if they complain about their parents for any reason.
6. The emptiness & sadness never leaves your heart.
You feel like an orphan. At times you will cry just as much as you did the day they died. The pain changes & subsides with time, but it's never ever gone.
7. You'll wish you savored the moments and took more pictures.
You'd give anything to have just one more moment with your parents. You will wish you could take one last photo. See their smile hear their voice one more time. So take those photos like they are your last because it could actually could be!
8. You'll feel loss for the grandchildren they will never know and great-grandchildren they'll never meet.
The family photos you won't get to take, the holidays you'll never spend together. A lifetime of memories you have not been able to have will be forever missed. So if you are blessed with family get those family portraits they will last forever when you print them. They will be loved and cherished by you and your future family for many years to come.
9. You won't be able to function at times.
One minute your fine then suddenly your in tears when someone or something reminds you of your parents. You'll feel sick & beside yourself. You'll wish more than anything that your Mama was there to make you some soup and take care of you. At times you will want to go somewhere only you know.
10. You will understand the importance of family like never before.
No one else is ever going to love you unconditionally like your parents. We spend years wishing our parents would get off our backs only to realize they were the ones that really ever had our backs!
Those of us that have lost our parents, understand and we miss them everyday. They may no longer be here on earth, but their legacy will live on through us. As life passes by we lose our parents, some sooner than others it changes us. We learn to appreciate the little moments take more pictures savor time with our own kids. Hopefully the memories we make will comfort them when it’s our time to go to heaven. I do find peace in knowing my mother is in paradise and is no longer suffering here on earth. She is home with our heavenly father. We will be together again one day. What lessons did you learn after losing your parents? Let me know and make sure you share this blog with your family & friends. If you are blessed to still have time with your parents let this be a reminder to show them some love. “The greatest lovers are Mothers” ~Mary Rivers; Yup thats my beautiful great grandmother at 94 in the article below she was a gem!!
The transcript for article above.
ARGUS . Fremont- Newark. Sunday. May 11, 1975
"The world’s greatest lovers are mothers." The above message comes directly from, choose one (A) A bumper sticker distributed by a maternity wear manufacturer (B) A graffiti collection in a Berkeley restroom. (C) A Mother's Day card made by Mary Rivers, 94 a resident of Crestwood Convalescent Hospital Fremont. How did you guess? Mrs. Rivers is the author of that line. An avid card sender, she's been known to mail dozens of invitations for her own birthday party. One year the huge piles of valentines she received truly astonished one of her daughters, Sister Leonarda Rivers. When questioned about the onslaught of cards, Mrs. Rivers confessed, "I threw out the bait first." She'd prevailed upon several relatives to mail batches of her heart-shaped notes early in February. But Mrs. Rivers insists her Mother's Day card isn't bait. This time is different; this time it's because we have to take care of the children." she told her daughter. After establishing once and for all who the greatest lovers are, at least in her estimation, she goes on to plead. "So let us join together, m o t h e r s , grandmas, and great-grandmas (she is all of the above), and. with a mother's love in our hearts, help make this world a better home to live in." In her ninth decade, she finds much joy in being "young enough to care and make sacrifices for God's children." and appreciates the care she herself receives from visitors and hospital staff members. She pays them the highest compliment she can imagine: "They're very good; they have the mother's caring." As the mother of 9 children of her own and 16 foster children, the grandmother of 17. and the great-grandmother of 23, she still has a roll of caring for others. Now she tries to demonstrate that concern by giving her family a good example. How does she do that? "I listen and keep the mouth closed," Mrs. Rivers said laughing and making lip-zipping motions. She hesitated to comment on mothers today, at first dodging her daughter's questions and saying, "I feel love for the mother, because I was a mother; I know what it is." With repeated questioning. she eventually conceded, yes, mothers are different now. "How are they different?" They give more liberties to girls." "Too many?" Said with a smile:"Yes." After thinking a moment, she remembered meeting some women who weren't cut out to be mothers, and said she thought mothers should avoid working outside the home if possible. Does she think the job of motherhood is becoming more or less difficult now? That , too, took some thought. -It's easier in one way, because you have somebody to help educate the children, but it can be hard. Sometimes the fathers aren't good; they don't help them out." Good mothering doesn’t ensure good children, though, she indicated. It's not always the mother's fault if the children get into trouble. -Sometimes the children keep bad company." she said. Among her daughters and foster daughters are mothers who make her very proud. They told me they had a good lesson with me." Mrs. Rivers said. She was pleased to see some daughters become mothers while one became a nun. "That's good, if they're happy and you're happy." she told Sister Leonarda. "I like you to be what you want. You love and care like a mother, but you never can have that feeling, the mother's feeling." With that loving feeling may come sacrifice. She didn't deny that. After her husband died in a farming accident, she had to manage the ranch and her family with help from neighbors. But she said she wasn't sorry for what she suffered. Would you do it again?" Sister Leonarda inquired? Her mother laughed "That's very hard to answer." Finally, she said, that yes she'd have a big family and take care of the foster children again, if I were young again. "I don't refuse life."
2019 Senior Team Model
A Once in a Lifetime Experience
Rhonda Childers Photography strives to lift the confidence through showing my clients their true beauty both inside and out. One of the best ways I do that is through the Senior Model Program. Each year, I select a limited number of Seniors to be apart of our senior model team, where they join a few peers to participate in exclusive portrait sessions and other fun events throughout their senior year of high school
What is a Senior Model?
Senior Models are representatives for Rhonda Childers Photography for their entire senior year of high school. Each senior is selected based on their personality, academics, and extracurriculars. No model experience is required. The senior model teams goal is to encourage each other as young people and to lift each other up.
WHY BE A SENIOR MODEL?
The senior model team is a BLAST!
You'll be a part of a family of people who encourage and inspire one another
You'll have the opportunity to participate in various photoshoots and events
You'll receive many perks that are exclusive to the RCP model team
WHO SHOULD APPLY?
Current Senior graduating class of 2019
Someone who wants to make a difference not only in their own life, but in the lives of others
Someone who is active on social media and in their community
Someone who is excited to represent RCP in their senior year of high school
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
Invitation to exclusive portrait shoots throughout the year
Individual senior portrait session the summer before your senior year
Cash for each referral brought to Rhonda Childers Photography
Make new friends
Community Service hours
Complimentary RCP senior model t-shirt
And plenty more!
SENIOR REP APPLICATION
Application is due now. Potential models must be available for a group shoot (date and time to be determined) A parent or guardian must sign the Senior Rep and Model Release contract in order for you to participate. Reps must be in Senior year of high school graduating in the class of 2019.
Who's Next?
FILL OUT THE MODEL TEAM APPLICATION & SHARE WITH A FRIEND, SOMEONE WHO WOULD MAKE A GREAT 2019 SENIOR REP.
What the cup?
Seriously, I have a coffee obsession. People always wonder, what I'm addicted to more the coffee or the cup? I seriously have a thing for coffee it makes me happy, it brings me comfort. One of my earliest memories as small child is sneaking sips of my mothers coffee (she drank it with cream no sugar) I grew up with coffee, it's my comfort food. Our home is somewhat decorated like a coffee house it's comfortable, “Childers Coffee Café”. This love, OK my addiction for coffee is a little out of control, but whatever gets me through the day. I've acquired quite the collection of coffee cups. Each and everyone of them is very significant to me and has very special meaning, they have become a part of me. As I reflect on the years that have past coffee has been a big part of my life. So honestly I wonder what I am savoring? Is it the coffee, the cup or these coffee moments? What am I holding on to? To me coffee is life or maybe it's just life is like coffee? Let me share with you one of my favorite inspirational coffee stories.
Life is like a Cup of Coffee.
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor.
Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.
While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee.
In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.
What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups, and then you began eyeing each other’s cups to see who had the best one.
Now consider this said the professor “Life is like a cup of coffee”,
and life is the coffee, the jobs, money and position in society are the cups.
They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.
“Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee”.
So Savour the coffee, not the cups.
The happiest people don’t have the best of everything.
They just make the best of everything.
Live simply, Love generously, Speak kindly, Care deeply.
Life is like a Cup of Coffee : Author unknown
Senior favorites for the class of 2017
Check out the best of the best high school seniors. I've had the opportunity to capture some great moments this year. I gave my high school seniors an experience and together we made some great memories. I always enjoy spending time with each one, getting to know them and bonding with them. We are saying goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017. It's time to reflect back at each of the senior sessions. I gave each one title even though multiple titles can apply to some or all of them. I chose a characteristic that stood out the most. Please enjoy the class of 2017 senior favorites of Rhonda Childers Photography. Feel free to share! Congratulations to each of them. I am beyond excited to see where life leads them after high school. I adore these Patterson High School seniors and feel blessed to be able to be a Patterson California photographer in the central valley. Shooting in studio and as an on location photographer.
MOST SWAG
Angel Rojas
Angel loves cars and shoes but this guy lit up the city with his great fashion sense. We had an amazing shoot from Santana row to San Francisco. He was definitely celebrity status for the day, in fact several people inquired about him. We just said “Sorry, no autographs.” and moved on with our photo shoot. I have no doubt he is ready to take on the world.
KINDEST
Janiah Wallace
Janiah is one amazing young lady, she is beautiful inside and out. She has a good head on her shoulders and will surely have a successful future. I feel so blessed to have met this girl, she restores my faith in humanity. This young lady is truly sent from Heaven. She is sweet, funny and such a kind soul. She literally warmed my heart. This young lady will make a huge difference in every life she touches.
BEST EYES
Isabel Contreras
This girl is amazing, she has beauty and brains. Her eyes smile and make you smile with them. She is sweet and and humble as they come. We had so much fun on her photoshoot! She is a brilliant young lady, she is so wise and independent. I have no doubt her future is bright as her eyes!
BEST SERIOUS FACE
Martha Curiel
If looks could kill? This girl has a smile that lights up any room but watch out for her resting B**** face, it is fierce. She is a daddy's girl and she even gets her beauty from him, especially her serious mug face. This girl was so much fun she even hijacked my Snapchat, she is a girl after my own heart. Gotta love beautiful, clever and witty girls.
MOST PHOTOGENIC
Nicole Canals “Lexi”
To know Lexi is to love her, she is picture perfect! She rocked her photo shoot and was up for anything. We had a blast. Lexi she is always laughing, joking around and she has the sweetest, loving heart. She knows when to have fun and when to be serious, the camera loves Lexi and so do I. We had a blast making memories all over the city. Beautiful Lexi is going take on this world single handedly no doubt.
BEST HAIR
Shayla Guerrero
Shayla wanted a backdrop filled with buildings so that what's I gave her. Her photoshoot was in San Francisco, it was windy and crazy as we went up as high as we could. This girl straightened her curly hair and it embraced the crazy wind this day. She is a natural born model and knows how to strike a pose. I adore this girl and feel beyond blessed to capture this milestone for her. I am excited to see what the future holds for her.
MOST LIKELY TO ROCK ANY POSE
Emilio Gallegos
He had his heart set on a shoot in San Francisco. We were pushing the yearbook deadline and working with his mother's busy work schedule. We managed to squeeze a session in the city on Halloween. This boy is as determined as I am, he is definitely up for anything and everything. I warned him when he chose me as his photographer that it was going to be an experience, and I definitely gave him one. This guy was ready for anything, I was beyond blessed to have him as my last Senior for 2016.
