Maya McComas
Personal Narrative
I have learned
over the years that I have a secret desire, a desire to preserve every moment
in my life as accurately as possible. When I say “accurate” I don’t actually
mean remembering the events and how they happened, I mean more of an accurate
memory of how I felt. How does one do this, you might ask? Well there are three
ways.
The first is to
keep a journal. Yes there was a time in my life I abused the freedom of having
a journal and wrote nothing but love notes to the popular boys in shcool, but
now I think I’ve got it right. Write down every time you feel alive. But Maya,
I’m always alive. Yes, that you are, but when do you actually consciously think
to yourself “Damn! I’m flipping ALIVE!” It’s probably not as often as you might
think. I have reserved the journal as a sort of coin collection of these
moments, and it was the best damn idea I’ve ever had. The first time my lips
ever graced those of a boy I wrote it down.
Jan. 19th, 2006
OMG. It finally happened . . . I kissed a
boy. But . . . It sucked! Why does everyone like this? He hit his braces on my
teeth . . . ugh it was actually kind of gross. Maybe I did it wrong . . .?
This
wasn’t a firework inducing moment in my life, no, but it was a moment. Times when you feel alive aren’t
always going to be chocolate icing on the cake good. Sometimes they are waving
at someone who doesn’t wave back kind of awkward. But the fact is that it makes
you feel something, and that something is strong enough to remind you that your
heart is indeed, still beating. I am beyond excited to go back through all of
the journals I’ve kept in my life when I’m 80 and re-experience all the ups in
downs of my journey through life.
Now
the second way is far more common, taking pictures. I can’t remember a time I
went somewhere and didn’t take any pictures. I’ve gone so far as taking
“selfies” in the Dentist’s office right before I got my wisdom teeth out (and
this was only three weeks ago). I actually might have an addiction to clicking
the little black button on the camera, it just feels so . . . right. They say
that if you take a picture of something you remember it less but I choose to
ignore that. How can you remember less when you have an actual image frozen in
time that you can look back at forever? The displaying of these pictures is
perhaps the best part. If you were to walk into my room, you would have an
overload of hundreds of faces staring down at you from the walls. If you asked
me what the color of my walls are, I couldn’t tell you. It’s been that long.
When you are surrounded by that many memories you never have a chance to feel
alone. They allow you to go back to a specific place and time and visually
relive the experience.
The
third way is to film things. When I say “things” I really mean everything. You
never know what’s going to make an interesting shot or what’s going to trigger
a memory somewhere down the road. A really great place to start practicing you
filming skills is a night of drinking with your friends. That’s cruel, Maya,
what’s wrong with you? I know, I know, but hear me out on this one. While your
filming, most people want to be on camera while intoxicated (because for some
reason most people turn into a much nicer version of themselves) and no one is
camera shy. This is great news to any videographer, because there is nothing
worse then a conversation on film like this:
Videographer starts filming Person 1.
Person smiles for 10 seconds like
they are posing for a picture.
Videographer: “Oh its not a picture,
it’s filming.”
Person: “Oh, uh, ok. Um hi Mom!”
Videographer: “Just act natural,
like I’m not here.”
Person: “My butt itches.”
Avoiding these awkward moments on
camera will allow for the most candid of memories. You could also just strap a
Go-Pro camera to your forehead but I suggest going for the less obvious route.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGPsr26kR9A
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