Picture Essay

Hello, my name is luke devault and this is a small part of my life. Life is a series of ups and downs, but with courage and a little help, you can pull through. I had a hard time, so maybe hearing what happened to me could give you some courage and make the weight a little lighter. I went to middle school at U of D Jesuit in Detroit. U of D is an expensive school and the only way I could afford to go was based on a talent scholarship. I was given the maximum scholarship, but at the end of my 8th-grade year, my family ran into poverty and even with the max scholarship they could no longer afford to attend regardless of grades. During this time I became deeply interested in science and robotics. This interest in robotics and science lead me to ATA where I went to high school. During my time in high school, I joined a number of clubs but the most notable was my FIRST robotics team. Bellow, you have a picture of the junior and sophomore members of my team on the right and to the left, you see one of our robots trying to make a break for it over the wall.  

On this team, there was a girl. She watched kids cartoons and knew everything about wrestling and had a twisted sense of humor. She had the brightest smile and this intense positivity that could cut through the deepest night. We started to date about midway through our freshman year and have been a unit since then. It’s strange, she never felt like a stranger to me. It was like I had known her for my whole life. We are about to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Bellow on the left we are seen at a movie, on the bottom we are at a park and on the right is a picture of her sitting in a bag right before the 2017 solar eclipse          





In high school, I made close friends that have often been like family. Some of the best parts of my life have been with my friends. Manny, i knew from robotics and high school, but others I meet through my mother. The people seen below have been some of the bricks that have been the foundation of the last half of my life. With too many photos to reasonably mention but some of the highlights include group photo outside Youmacon, photo at cedar point, several photos of us at Campus Martius, and Ashley sitting in her locker.     

Something like two years ago my father passed away. In the picture below he's standing next to my mother and on the right that's him with his early 80’s afro. I and mom have had a hard time dealing with him. I don’t have the strength to linger on this.    


Last year my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and lymphoma. She's ok, but it was a hard year. They were able to remove the breast cancer and the lymphoma has been treated, so it won't come back for at least a decade. Strangely my mom is healthier now than before the treatment. She has lost a lot of weight and has a lot more mobility, so a least there's an upside to all this. 

I don’t want you to look at this and see tragedy because it’s not. This is just life we lose loved ones and we gain new love ones. To everything, there is a season, a time for birth and a time for death. But through sickness and health, we carry on to the breach. I have loving friends and family and my memories of those who have moved on.