Last night, when I was at the San Francisco Botanical Society Library waiting for the teachers to arrive for their workshop about soil, I began to wonder how I got there, not physically got there, but how I got so lucky in life to be able to be a photographer and to experience such wonderful events.

The wonderful event, where my ‘wondering’ began, was the soil class which is a part of the Professional Development workshop series for teachers in the San Fransisco Unified School District. The series is run by the The San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance in order to help teachers feel more comfortable using their outdoor classrooms.

The event was so much fun to photograph because the teachers were so involved in their own wonderment over the wonders of soil that they completely ignored my presence. The room was full of laughter and delight as the teachers became students and got their hands in the dirt.

And on my drive home, after my good friend Rachel who had invited me to photograph the event had thanked me again and again for coming, I wondered if I would always feel like I should be the one doing the thanking for the opportunity to photograph their world.

Not only did I get to have fun taking photographs, but I also got to see a cool new part of San Francisco, I got to meet people who are excited about soil and I learned how to make my compost pile better and why gophers aren’t so bad.