What is a life? A life is nothing more than a collection of days lived. Good days. Bad days. Mundane days. Exciting days. Boring days. Work days. Play days. Days shared with friends, family, and pets. Days spent with people you would rather not spend time with at all. Happy days, sad days, anxious days, restful days.
I’ve lived well over 21,000 days of my lifetime so far. For reasons that one does, I began searching through pictures on my phone, on old computers, and in boxes of stored photos from my past. I’ve realized that I have a picture that has documented something that was happening in my life in some year on nearly any given day. January 1, March 16, September 20. Each day I search brings up a host of memories from my past. Some days, there may be only one photo, usually something random that I have totally forgotten about or a screen shot of something I needed to remember for a short period of time then neglected to delete. Some days there are multiple photos from multiple years. Interestingly, those are not always the big days, birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. I often forget to take pictures at all on those days. Late summer days tend to have a lot of photos, as that is the time of year we usually travel. Winter days tend to have the least. Obviously, there are more photos since the time of me acquiring a smart phone as it is always with me, always available. Physical photographs from before 2000 are mostly in boxes, albums, and scattered throughout drawers and cubbies around my house. I stumble upon them from time to time, usually while searching for something else.
With the beginning of a new year, especially this new year which promises to bring us all back into the here and now of living, I want to explore where my life has taken me through the many photos I have accumulated. The twists and turns that have brought me to today. While I am mostly a forward looking type of person, sometimes it help to know where you came from to know where you are going. With that in mind, I wish to share many of those days here. I hope you will share some of your days as well, in the comments below.