Stranger in the Photo is Me
A picture is worth a thousand words, but is it really? A picture to me is not a thousand words, but a thousand ideas. The idea of a picture itself is so simple, yet so remarkable in the way that we can look a picture and instantly relive a previous memory or experience. Pictures are almost a way to freeze time and reflect on who we were then and who we are now.
This photograph is not much of an experience, but a reflection on my life as a child itself. I had no idea back then that I would be who I am today. I pictured my future many times, over, and over again. I would make up stories and ideas of the types of friends I would have and what we would do for fun. Imagining your own perfected future is all the innocence of being a child. The unknown reality of the world going on around you. And then all of a sudden you’re a part of that world, and your perfect future is all a distant memory you relive when looking back at old pictures.
In the picture, my back is turned, leaving me with a sense of curiosity as to who I really was back then. Although you cannot see my face that is one of the reasons I am so fond of this picture. There’s many things I would change about the way I’ve gone about my life so far and the decisions I’ve made in my past, yet none of that shows in this picture. There is no comparison or dislike of who I was or what I looked like, just curiosity.
It is a shame we cannot just jump back to the past and relive old memories like the one in this photograph. The day this picture was taken was no special or important day. It was just a typical day at the zoo with my family, yet I find myself overwhelmed that even a simple day such as this one makes you who you are now. Every day you live and every picture you take shape you into the person you will eventually become in the future.
As I try to relive the memory the photograph has captured, I realize I am nothing like the child in the photo. At the time I most likely would have only dreamt of
This photograph is not much of an experience, but a reflection on my life as a child itself. I had no idea back then that I would be who I am today. I pictured my future many times, over, and over again. I would make up stories and ideas of the types of friends I would have and what we would do for fun. Imagining your own perfected future is all the innocence of being a child. The unknown reality of the world going on around you. And then all of a sudden you’re a part of that world, and your perfect future is all a distant memory you relive when looking back at old pictures.
In the picture, my back is turned, leaving me with a sense of curiosity as to who I really was back then. Although you cannot see my face that is one of the reasons I am so fond of this picture. There’s many things I would change about the way I’ve gone about my life so far and the decisions I’ve made in my past, yet none of that shows in this picture. There is no comparison or dislike of who I was or what I looked like, just curiosity.
It is a shame we cannot just jump back to the past and relive old memories like the one in this photograph. The day this picture was taken was no special or important day. It was just a typical day at the zoo with my family, yet I find myself overwhelmed that even a simple day such as this one makes you who you are now. Every day you live and every picture you take shape you into the person you will eventually become in the future.
As I try to relive the memory the photograph has captured, I realize I am nothing like the child in the photo. At the time I most likely would have only dreamt of