The other day my mom called from back home and asked me if I could send her an image that she wanted to have enlarged so she could hang it in a frame in her bedroom. See, although I just use a teeny tiny little Panasonic (teeny tiny in the scheme of photography), I’d like to think that I am pretty darn good at photography and it would seem that she agrees.
This basically started up an emotional weekend.
As I was searching through my computer for the file, I decided to go into my photo box and pull out all the CDs that I had containing pictures not on my laptop. Essentially we traveled to the Caribbean once per year for the last 7 years and these CDs contained all of the photos. Nobody had looked at them in a long time, they were just forgotten CDs sitting in a box high up on a closet shelf.
I started snapping quick pictures of my computer screen as I opened the CDs and sent the images to my mom over BBM. We would ooh and ahh over the ones that were frame-worthy and then my mom started explaining why she liked these pictures so much.
They have so many memories, they mean something to me. I could walk into a store and find a beautiful picture of a beach, but anybody can take a picture of a beach and it’s just a beach. These pictures are full of good memories.
And I think that was the first time that I had ever really stopped to really look at the pictures and think about them. Up until then I hadn’t realized how valuable they actually were. These pictures were snapshots of some of the best moments of the last 7 years.
They weren’t about my ex-fiance who cheated on me, or my ex-boyfriend who broke up with my the night before university graduation. They weren’t about my boyfriend who suddenly became seriously mentally ill and broke my heart, they weren’t about my own depression and struggles through university and the job market afterwards.
These pictures aren’t of the petty people in university who chose popularity over morality, or of the days spent firing off resumes in desperation, or of looking in the bank account and wondering how anybody can afford to live.
They aren’t pictures like you see on television of suffering, starvation, war, or disease.
They are pictures of happy places and happy people. Skies that are almost to blue to imagine and beautiful cities, monuments, jungles, animals, food, you name it. These are the pictures of my memories and I can’t believe how much I took for granted. I felt so awful!
So in order to remember more and appreciate more, I decided to start up a Pintrest account. I have a board called Things that make me smile :). It’s literally a collection of pictures and videos so far that remind me of things that I have experienced in life. Eventually I might add my own photos, but for now I am content with what I am finding on the net. Maybe some of my pins will make you smile too and you can follow me here.
As for life here, I think I have a differently outlook on it. I’m pretty much done decorating my living room so I finally feel at home when I am at my apartment and I really can’t wait to host guests. I’m getting lots of invitations to lunches and to do things outside of work, so I’m certainly not without company. I wouldn’t say I have developed any particularly strong friendships and my love life is as non-existent as ever, but I’m staying positive.
And back to my conversation with my mom, she suggested that maybe I should get some nice frames and put memories in them rather than just pictures. I completely agree! I could pay $100 for some generic canvas prints of things I find beautiful, or I could go out and seek them for myself, and make great memories while doing so. It’s really not such a tough decision.
Here’s to memories, and pictures, and everything else positive. I’d love for you to share with me what your favourite photo memory is!
Mine is of my mother and I standing in front of a beautiful flower bed in Jamaica. It was our first time visiting that particular location and in the end we fell in love with it and returned several more times. That vacation was the vacation of a life time and I will never forget it.
P.S. That’s not the picture, but it’s from the same trip!