Jul 16

Jul 16 Walking down memory lane

If you are anything like me, you probably spend some time every once in a while looking through old photos. You flip through the years - from the time you stayed up all night with your friends in college to the moment your child did something silly at the park to the birthday party where you joined hands and danced the night away. You look at every face in those pictures and realize that some of them have stayed through all of your major life events.

I enjoy these memory walks a little too much. At some point almost every day, I sit with my tea and scroll away. Sometimes, it’s just for a few minutes. Other times, I don’t even realize I’ve been looking at photos until an hour or so later. It’s not that I wish those times in the photos would come back. I am mostly looking through to appreciate every step I have taken to get to the life I have now.

The people in my photos have all been an important part of my journey. Whether it was a friend who traveled to visit me in New York City and took pictures of me in the middle of the street. Or a captured romantic stroll my now-Husband and I took in Moscow. Or a group shot from the surprise bridal shower my friends organized for me in our tiny Southern Maryland apartment. Each image I see reminds me how much I have been loved all through my life. It makes me want to show even more love to those around me.

From the faces that show up from way back when I barely spoke English to the ones that appear after I became a Mama, life would not have been the same without each person’s role in it. I can’t help but feel like each image is a brick among the collection that built who I am. My gratitude for having these memories goes beyond just their existence.

They are a constant reminder that my life has been stable long enough for me to have the physical (or electronic) proof that these moments happened. My life has been stable enough for me to still have many of the old faces in my life at the moment. Maybe the reason I am so obsessed with them is to remind myself that all is well, and that all will be well no matter what else comes.