Edit 13: Why Not Us?
There’s something about a football season that refuses to behave the way it usually does.
It doesn’t announce itself as exceptional at the outset or have a pretty storyline. It’s a season that, as it unfolds, has significant bumps but asks you to keep watching even when the outcome isn’t guaranteed. It’s equal parts madness, magic, and hope.
This year’s football season for the Ole Miss Rebels felt like that.
We all know it wasn’t effortless-and no one will say it was perfect-but it was resilient, marked by moments of rising when it would have been easier to fold, showing up again and again after doubt, after noise, after being underestimated, and asking the question that perfectly summed up the season:“Why not us?”
It’s a question that stuck with me.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how much that mindset mirrors my own life lately.
Photography has taught me this: you don’t always see the image immediately. You frame, adjust, wait for the light to do its thing. Sometimes you miss the shot you thought you wanted only to discover later that the one you did capture holds something even better.
There’s a lot humility to that process (and a dash of courage). Even with all the unknowns you show up and do the work anyway.
This season I’ve been learning what it looks like to trust the long game.
To keep going without guarantees, to share more of the small moments rather than just the big, to let consistency be louder than confidence.
The Rebels didn’t end up in the quarter finals because the odds were in their favor. They arrived there because they stayed present inside the work, the discipline, and the belief that effort compounds no matter who’s cheering for or against you.
That’s a lesson I’m carrying with me-and it’s a big one.
In life, in photography, in the in-between seasons we don’t always name, progress doesn’t have to be a huge production to be a success. It’s in the discipline, being present, and having the courage to keep going that you see true growth and find out who you really are.
So why not us?
Because sometimes the best thing we can do is keep showing up-on the field and off, camera and heart in hand-trusting that the work, the season, and the story are unfolding exactly as they should. It’s celebrating the growth even when the outcome doesn’t look the way you hoped, and honoring the work when it’s hard-won.
To everyone who believed, watched, cheered, and rallied along the way…thank you. We loved having you along for this wild, wonderful ride of a season.
Hotty Toddy Rebels! We’ll see you in the next one.
All photography featured in this post is original work by E.D. Quon Photography and is protected by copyright. Please enjoy, but do not copy, reproduce, or use without permission.
