Devyani – Week 16 – Photo Album
On the last day of every school year from kindergarten to third grade (and once at the end of our second-grade performance of The Nutcracker), my mom would press a small gray digital Nikon camera into my little hands and tell me to ask someone to take a picture of me with my classmates or my teacher–“for the memories.”
In our high school days of cellphones, pictures have become as uncomplicated as they are necessary, from quick selfies to entire class photos–definitely not the ordeal my mind made them to be. As a child, though, I was mortified to ask this of someone, though I dutifully carried out my mother’s instructions and would take back the camera with a quiet but earnest thank-you and tuck it away in my backpack, ears burning. In retrospect, what probably felt weird was not being able to share said photos with anyone, since it was always the last day and no one knew anyone’s contacts.
Those photos were uploaded and now reside somewhere in the depths of a digital photo album on my dad’s desktop computer–I have no idea where most of them are now. But the images are still imprinted into my mind’s eyes, and with them the memories of each year. The gap-toothed smiles that my friends and I flashed at the camera as we huddled together, dressed as Sugar Plum Fairies and with horrible cases of red-eye. (This was the song we danced to; for a good year afterwards I was of the mind that Tchaikovky’s original work came with these lyrics.) My classmates arranged neatly in rows for a photo, surrounded by brightly-colored posters and papers: the phonetics charts above the smart board, the rules of arithmetic operations (why did Aunt Sally need to be excused?), our most recent art projects stapled to the wall.
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| After digging through numerous camera bags, I found that silver camera, still containing the picture taken of my second-grade class. |
Even though we probably could have used a phone, I’m glad my mom insisted on a digital camera (her reason, of course, being that she would never entrust me with taking her phone to school at that age). The vivid, saturated colors reflect the way I see that time of my life–full of a surreal vibrancy that never faded.
My high school photos have the same role, too, though they’re stored in my phone. Hidden among the hundreds of photos of notes and assignments are pictures that remind me of the moments of laughter over the last three years. The wells of colorful solutions and precipitates, taken during a chemistry lab, with a lab mate grinning with a thumbs-up in the background. More recently, group photos of our class dressed up–whether for the Gatsby party or for POAS presentations. And the end-of-the-year group photos, comically the antithesis of the elementary school ones in how everyone in the back was caught balancing precariously on their toes, trying to peek over the heads in front.
As we conclude our second-to-last year of high school and continue on our paths to achieving our dreams, I know that the memories in my photo album will always remind me that it is just as important to stay in the moment.
Hey Devyani, I also can relate with your experiences because my mom absolutely loves pictures. Although I dreaded them as child, looking back through our family's google photo album and seeing all the pictures of my first days of school is heartwarming (and a bit sad knowing that in just a few months I will be taking the last first day of school picture for my primary and secondary schooling).
ReplyDeleteI personally have never used a digital camera (maybe a small hand-held one for taking videos during vacations) because most of the time my parents would take pictures of me at school during open houses or when they stopped by for some reason or another. Even in high school, I find myself to not take that many pictures but lately I have found myself taking more and more. High school is an experience we can only live through once and having pictures to look back to, seeing your friends and teachers, is invaluable. Great blog post!
Hi Devyani, after looking through the thousands of photos I’ve amassed in the past few years for my collage, I realize how precious pictures are, even though I rarely simply sit at my desk and scroll through them. Similar to you, whenever we go out, my mom would force me into awkward photos that would end up buried under new ones, between screenshots of work conversations and pictures of food. The one time I used a digital camera, I took copious amounts of photos in hopes to capture the last moments with my eighth grade friends, yet those photos are now lost along with my old computer. Yet sometimes I feel like living in the moment is more important than trying to capture every moment with a camera. The feelings in that moment, whether it’s joy or sadness, are temporary and can’t be seen through an image. At the same time, I love looking back at old photos because it reminds me of how I felt previously and brings this feeling of nostalgia. I really like your blog post (like always) and your amazing diction!
ReplyDeleteHi Devyani! I love how you chose to talk about your end-of-school-year memories as a child. Like you, I was also pretty shy as a kid. Regardless I think your mother did a noteworthy thing by sending you off to take pictures. I think it helped you build an appreciation for the present—or “stay in the moment,” like you said.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with your concluding paragraph. With college application season fast approaching (the next stage of our lives!), I think it’s important to cherish the present, even though the uncertainty of the future might seem to be more capable of holding our thoughts captive. During such times, it’s important to have something to remind us of the past, something to reawaken the feelings of nostalgia to show just what we’re missing by not living the present moment.