Another year has come and a new batch of pictures has been added to my collection. Looking back at the photos I’ve accumulated through the years made me realize that a lot has happened. The transition from the baby pictures with family members to the most recent ones with my officemates and friends is composed of different stories that sum up my experiences.
It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words. Behind every smile and every pose is a story. Only fragments of what has become—the result brought about by the passage of time—are recorded as an image. The captured moments will forever provide a glimpse of the past. Whether it is worth remembering or forgetting is entirely up to the viewer.
Physical change is easy to tell, but the tale behind each transformation remains untold, unless disclosed during reunions or retrospectives, and if one can still remember. As I grow up, to me, years only pass by. As I got a year older, I gained new knowledge. The clothes I used to wear no longer fit. There are gradual changes in my routine, responsibilities pile up—and the next thing I know, I’ve outgrown the child that I once was. I’ve grown old.
I’m no longer the baby that family members used to carry for picture taking, not even the little girl who loved to pose. I now prefer to be the one who takes the pictures, as much as I want to be in them.
My reminiscing has led me to realize that just as some new people are added to the pictures, some remained only in the past. People come and go. People change. No matter how much each of us want to be in the same scene, only some of us will be a part of it. And, thankfully, there are still those who remain.
Browsing through my collection has made me sentimental. Such images become proof that we existed, that such an event happened, that we have crossed paths, and that together, despite the changes we are all experiencing, we are in a single moment.
Change comes in different forms and sizes. Whether internal or external, it is bound to happen. It’s funny to think how a simple thought, act, person, place, thing, or event can trigger a conversion. Often the shift from one thing to another is painful, and most of the time it remains hidden from the naked eye.
Like a budding butterfly wrapped in its cocoon, we, too, experience a dark night of the soul before a “Eureka!” moment.
Haizelyn N. Casimiro, 26, works at RareJob Philippines.