Photo #2:
Late in the afternoon, when the sun gets all golden and the clouds envelop the sun and turn different shades of red, pink and purple as the sun sets. This is my most favorite part of the day, the best time to take photos, because the light that glides off every surface is so warm, so glistening, so magical. It’s like the world is trying to hold onto something but it knows that it must let it go, but it’s okay, because the sun will be back tomorrow. There will be another day. I always want to take a picture of this time, but I’m never in the right place where I can get a good angle on both the sun, the clouds, and whatever is around me. And when I am, the camera is nowhere in sight. But my mind is always there, to remember the way the light shines through the leaves on the trees, and how the edge of the sky slowly starts turning darker blue, until the night takes over.

Photo #3:
The peacefulness of floating in water, on your back, and holding your hands out to feel the water between your fingers. And the sun is beating down on you, your skin basking in the golden rays. Of course I can never take this picture myself, if I’m the one in the water. But I love the feeling of this, and how this would translate into a photograph. I don’t think a photograph could ever elicit such a feeling though.

Photo #4:
A huge part of my life involves hugs. I’m a hugger. I surround myself with other people who are huggers. It’s good to hug. I realized the other day that I don’t have any pictures of hugs. And I don’t know if you can really have a photograph of a hug that gives off the same feeling of actually getting a hug, or giving a hug. Some people may find this idea silly, but I’d really like to take a photograph of a really great hug. I’ve had many in my lifetime. But none on film. Maybe it’s better to remember hugs than to physically see them on film. I don’t know.

Photo #5:
When I was younger I went to Corpus Christi, Texas, to help clean the beaches with my eighth grade science club. And I have always wished that I had taken more photos. My camera back then was a 35mm, and it wasn’t anything special. It took the worst photographs. I do have some photos from the trip but they’re not the moments I remember the most. I wish I had one of all of my friends and I traveling in the large van, driving down the highway, and the conversations we had in the dark of night. And eating at the Golden Corral, where I scarfed down three bowls of soft serve chocolate ice cream with oreo cookies sprinkled on top. (And why do we use the word “scarf” to describe a way of eating ravenously…another thought for another day…)

Photo #6: Inks Lake trip, Texas
This is another trip I took with my friends in Texas, affiliated with the Science Club I believe. We traveled to this place called Inks Lake (or is it Inkx?) and it was this very relaxing trip. There were caves, and this waterfall area that fell into a basin of water that you could wade into. The current was very strong, so you couldn’t stay there long. And we watched this slide show late at night that showed beautiful scenes of mountains and clouds and fields with an overlay of new age music. We all camped out in tents and it was the most fantastic thing I’d ever done up to that point, as it was the first time I ever slept in a tent. My family had never gone camping. And for once in my life, I felt as if I was doing my own thing, being my own person. I could walk around and just do what I wanted to do, within reason of course. But it was so freeing, to walk to the edge of the water and just sit and relax in the dying light of day. I don’t think I took a single photograph of that trip.

I have many moments of my life I wish I had pictures of. Some I can’t share with the world, because then it would reveal too much of who I am and what I treasure. I do need to keep some things just for me. Everyone should have something that they can remember that is only theirs. But I will try to remember the rest that I can share, the other times that wish I could grasp in my fingers and look at without digging through the dirt of my memory to find them.