Why To Scrap

In my hunt for pictures to scrap yesterday, I came across some photos from 2007 that I decided to upload to Facebook to share with my friends.  The photos were of my son and my friends' kids playing in a creek and at a local waterfall.  It was fun to see and share the photos of my son and the other children from five years ago.  Although I don't remember details of the day, I do remember the feelings - the fun & enjoyment we had of being together.

As I was showing my son the pictures (and having him guess who all the little babies are!) we ended up flipping back through time in the photos - until we ran out of digital versions.  My hubby and I decided to grab the big box of photos that were just a disaster.  The idea was to show them to Bug and organize a bit.  By the time we were done, this is what we ended up with.

A big bag of photos that are headed for the trash.  (Not all of the bag is photos, there is one broken photo album in there too.)  Why are they headed for the trash you might ask?  Well, some of them are duplicates that we determined we didn't need (remember when everyone always ordered duplicates on all your rolls?) Quite a few of them though are pictures from our late teen & young adult years that we just don't remember. We don't know who the people are or what we were doing or even why we took photos!

We did save the photos of the people we knew or the activities we recognized, although we do have quite a few rolls that have question marks where the dates belong.  But neither one of us saw much point in keeping rolls of pictures where we couldn't identify any of the people.  The majority of the rolls I tossed were from my first couple years of college.  I did save some of them.  There were some pictures of me or the few friends that I'm still friends with.  But the majority were of my housing co-op sisters.  I don't remember them. I don't have any connections with any of them anymore.  And the funny or exciting happenings that made me take the pictures to begin with completely escape me.

This wouldn't have happened had I been scrapping these pictures way back then! I wouldn't be looking back trying to pull out the memories.  I'd be able to see the names and read the stories that surround the photo.  Those written down stories paired with the photo might help bring back some long-lost memories of that time of my life.  (Although there is a good chance the memories would still be lost in the recesses of my mind!)

I don't want that to happen to the pictures I take today!  Or even those ones from five years ago that I only slightly remember! In another 15 years, I want to know who the faces are and what we're laughing at!  I want to know when the picture was taken and where.  I want to be able to share with my son and other family members the life we are living now.

I encourage you to get the preserve the memories now.  Don't pack your pictures to the back of your closet (or the back of your hard drive) and forget about them.  Don't be like I was and have to throw away two years of your life because you don't remember it.   Be like I am now, cherishing and saving the memories of our lives through digital scrapbooking.

By the way, here is what the box of photos looks like now.  There are still a lot of photos to organize better and get the memories scrapped!  Oh, and this box? It doesn't include anything from the past 9 years since my son was born.  That's all in a different box!

Do you have photos you barely remember taking? Have you thrown away photos that don't hold meaning for you anymore?