When I was a kid, I loved going through pictures of my parents’ young years and listen stories my mom told about those days. On every trip we went, my parents made pictures and got them printed once the photo strip was full.
However, once we got our first digital camera, we just kept the pictures on the computer. That who wants to go folder by folder with hundreds of images? Well, I don’t.
Besides, we once had an accident when the computer broke and we lost pictures of very dear family moments. That happened more than ten years ago but on that day I promised myself not only to take pictures but to keep them safe and print the dearest ones.
This is what I was doing ever since. And a couple of weeks ago I went through my digital albums and chose the moments I want to remember. It took me hours to go through all those pics and there were times I wanted to skip some parts but I went through them all again. And chose more than 500 pictures, mostly taken this year, to be printed.
Until now, I was keeping all my printed photographs in a vintage metal box. Well, now that box became too small and I got my very first photo albums.
And then I’ve spent almost one day, going through all the printed pictures, hundreds of them, sorting them by the time they were taken. Oh, how wonderful it felt! How many things were almost forgotten and how heartwarming it was to live them again in my mind.
We forget things, even the ones that seem unforgettable. And if it happens after a couple of years, how many things we forget after ten, twenty, or sixty years…
We take pictures for a reason. We want those moments to stay. But for that to actually happen, only clicking the camera button is not enough.
Go print your pics, put them somewhere in your living room and go through those memories from time to time alone, with family and friends, and relive them once again. That feels incredible.