I’ve been passing the link to my gallery around to some people on my MSN list. So far, feedback has been positive. I’m not sure why I felt like mentioning that…come to think of it, why would reaction be negative, you know? Anyway, some of the people I passed the link on to were people that I hadn’t been in contact with in the past year or two. When they saw the some of the photos, their immediate reaction was something to the effect that the events shown happened so very long ago. “Memories!” exclaimed one.
You know, I’ll be honest and say that the thought hasn’t really crossed my mind. I mean, it doesn’t feel like that long ago. It’s not so much that I feel like these things happened just yesterday. No. How can I describe it? It’s like…past events are static polaroids in my mind, not necessarily gaining dust, but quite frozen. It’s not that the events are ever that far off, but like I’m carrying a box of those polaroids with me as I age. Maybe it has something to do with some sort of mental time compression. Hell if I know. However, if I sit back and think about it, some of these events really are old.
Consider 2004. By now, that’s 3 years ago–which is very much an eternity. What was I doing back then? I was planning orientation week, which itself doesn’t seem like that long ago. I was also studying third year courses. Maybe the fact that I was only 22 back in April 04 will drive it home for me.
Holy crap! Yeah, that was a while ago.
I started university in 2000. Seven(!) years ago. I was so young. That really does seem like a long time ago. So much has happened. Perhaps though, that’s one factor that makes time compression happen. When there’s so much going on that relates to stress, strife, struggle, and adjustment, maybe that time period just feels slow because it holds so much weight in the mind. In the end, these years are now filed away and dealt with. I don’t need to hold onto the whole when a few mental stills of that time are all I need. Contrast that to more recent years. 2005 and 2006 seem to be a big blur for me. There’s no disrespect meant to anyone I knew during those two years. It’s just that that period was far less stressful and more enjoyable, making time fly. There are more mental snapshots of these recent times, you know? Part of it is that this time is the most recent (of course), but more importantly, there’s more to hold onto.
Anyway, back to what I was saying before, these things just never seem that far off to me. I’m not clinging onto these things tightly, wishing to revisit and relive these times, but certainly some things can be gained from learning lessons related to these past events, know what I mean?
I’m carrying my box of polaroids while looking towards the future.
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