Flash a Smile And Capture the Moment

     A photograph allows one to step back in time and actually see a moment of their past, good or bad, a picture proves that moment happened. One of my favorite picture shows me and one of the girls I traveled to Swaziland with looking semi grungy posing with the head of a dead animal. These two girls are ending an amazing journey, together; they overcame language barriers, became the people they were intended to be, over came many obstacles, and were victorious through it all. However by simply looking you wouldn’t know this; "…you could never really know what you were seeing with just a glance, in motion, passing by. Good or bad, right or wrong. There was always so much more." (Sarah Dessen in Just Listen)

     The days and weeks before this picture was taken changed my life so dramatically that I don’t recognize who I was before. I thought I was learning to stand on my own, learning to let go of everything and be a new creation, but I was oh so wrong. I learned that there is no such thing as standing on your own, you simply “rest in God’s strength and take it on as your own.”(Lizzie Parrish), I learned everyone is same yet very different; but most importantly I learned that your past matters, it shapes you into who you are; I learned that the little moments, can have lasting impact, and that laughter truly is the key joy.

      Remembering everything about this day would be next to impossible; however this captured moment spurs memories of  moments and conversation that enlightened my life. I always felt the need to be strong, the need to be everything everyone wanted or expected me to be.  This friend didn’t meet me until a month before this picture was taken, and wanted nothing from me except to know me and become close to me. Knowing I didn’t need to be a certain way allowed me to be exactly who I am: strong, broken, wise, incorrect and so much more.

    The ability to see something rather than just look at it allows all new meanings to come to life. I am now able to see things for what they are, rather than look at them how I want them to be. I look at this picture and see that though it’s posed it shows who we were as friends, and who we are as individuals. It clearly reflects the time we spent together, learning who we are and how we fit in the world. There’s so much more to everything than meets the eye.

   If you were to see this picture its silliness may put a smile on your face, or you may wonder where it was taken, but, without knowing the stories of the girls, the pictures magic is lost.  By looking at it you wouldn’t know that one of the girls is facing fears and overcoming lies that have held her back, or one is just trying to discover who she is and where she belongs. You can never see the story taking places before and after the flash of a camera, "…the picture is always changing, makes a statement about how time is always passing. It doesn't really stop, even in a single image. It just feels that way."(Sarah Dessen The Truth About Forever) This picture simply displays a single moment when two stories intersected and paused for the flash of a camera.