By Robert Henry Becker
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 24, 1997

Master's in life

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat Teyvan and Daryn get their nightly bath before going to bed.

She told me first both times.

With an unequivocal cadence in her voice, Shelly made me guess that she was pregnant.

That was when I was a freshman with typical college experiences. I wanted to major in art and stay up all night talking about existentialism. I wanted to convince myself that college was a way to find the threshold to life.

I found out that life does that, if you let it.

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat Shelly and Teyvan Lowe play at a park north of campus on a Saturday afternoon.

Babies can do that. And Shelly Lowe did that.

Twice.

She was 18 when her son Teyvan was born, in the summer, after freshman year.

He was a dorm baby, because conception happened ... in a dorm.

Her morning sickness wasn't distinguished from the typical college student's hangover.

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat Shelly nurses her daughter Daryn before getting ready to take her to the babysitter, Monday morning.

Probably because she didn't tell, only smiled a little devilish smile anytime someone looked pensive.

Daryn is her 1-year-old daughter. Born between holidays - after Christmas and a few days before Shelly's 21st birthday.

We're both seniors in college, now.

We'll graduate this year - bachelors of the arts.

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat Daryn and Teyvan play in the foreground while Shelly takes a nap on the couch.

I think she should have a masters, though.

Shelly's gotten through on her own, really. Her full-time job on campus supplements the limited help of a scholarship. She doesn't like to rely.

Snapshots.

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat

Before I graduate I need to make a book, a photographic book that documents something important.

There was a class in college for this. Its initial theme was conflict and I had to capture something resonant.

Like life.

I've seen through the long hours and late nights and upset munchkins, and am left with some 2,000 possible photographs to make a 30-page impression on life.

It seems improbable to me that I've watched her do this for years - and only snapped up six weeks.

But it makes a bookmark for memory.

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat