Don’t Go Looking Through Old Facebook Photos.
Oh hello there, I’m back again with some of my increasingly thought provoking word vomit on a website that no one will read. Well maybe one person will read this. In that case, hello mom.
I decided to do something that every, wait for it, millennial loves to do and thats reminisce. When I say reminisce, I mean looking at Time Hop, or Facebook memories or even scrolling through Instagram (that is now five years-old, how did that happen). We have an app for reminiscing for Petes sake. How convoluted does that sentence sound?
I began my “journey” through my past in picture and discovered a few things.
- I used to hate taking pictures when I was younger. I would purposefully make myself look atrocious which, is actually kind of funny. I’m sure there is someone who can psychoanalyze me on that whole thing, but honestly it just gives me a little giggle when looking at old photos.
2. I used to take photos of useless things. I’m not kidding. Case in point
3. I never took photos with significant others. I avoided posting, tagging, promoting anything with any significant others throughout high school and majority of college. This is something that future me would look at younger me and nod in appreciation.
4. I saw all the people that I’ve lost contact with, and stopped being friends with in some of my pictures. It’s weird seeing people that I used to be so influential in your life now complete strangers.
5. I’ve changed a lot. Not really physically, I still look like a 12 year-old, but in all areas of my life. I changed my opinions politically, I have grown (and changed views) in my faith, I gained an undergrad education, and I sadly don’t eat meat anymore (because I’m an awful person I know).
Which leaves me here. Thinking about the past, when I am in the present. Does it matter that when I was a senior in high school I pretended to eat a tablespoon of wasabi because I thought it was funny? No. Not at all. But it is interesting to look back and think that at one time I thought it did. It’s less about the pictures, and more about where my mindset was.
It leaves you with a void of what once was, and is no longer. Whether it’s innocence lost, or dreams dimming a little, reminiscing brings some of the lost things back. Including some of the bad, in my case prom pictures. But looking at what you wanted when you were a different person doesn’t translate to what you want now, and that’s okay. I don’t want to be a lawyer anymore, and that’s a dream I’ll gladly let go of. I will replace it with my interpretation of being successful. I want different things (although I will forever want these) because I am a different person.
When we take the time to look back at once was, we can’t hold ourselves to the same standard our younger selves once did. Or we can’t let that past haunt us either.
We have moved on from that, and will only allow a visit when it pops up in our Facebook feed. Other than that, just start posting something new.