Pictures tell us a story.
They represent a moment in time that cannot be repeated and help bring the past to life for just a mere moment.
Every time I develop a new case of nostalgia, I immediately go to my scrapbook. Looking at all the different pictures and re-living memories is something I will always cherish.
My pictures from my time abroad are some of my most valuable possessions.With all of that being said, my next statement may not make sense at first, but hear me out.
I wish I had taken less pictures on my study abroad trip. I spent four months in Europe during the fall of 2012 and was lucky enough to travel to eight different countries. While traveling, I probably took thousands and thousands of pictures. At the end of my journey my poor digital camera basically killed itself from overuse.
The camera had good reason to quit; it basically served as my eyes during many parts of my excursions. When I look back, I wish I hadn’t been so obsessed with taking 1,000 different pictures of the Trevi Fountain in Rome, or the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland or the Berlin Wall. I wish I would’ve focused more on living the moments I was in, not capturing them.
I in no way wish I hadn’t taken any pictures or that no one should ever take them when they travel. Who doesn’t want to capture the beauty to share with others and remember those special moments?
I’m simply talking about those I have encountered who are simply seeing the sights through their iPhones and digital cameras, seemingly never looking up and absorbing the awe-inspiring beauty before their eyes. I have been guilty of this as well. We probably all have. With the way technology has integrated itself into our everyday lives, our first thoughts aren’t often about experiencing the moment—they are about pulling out our phones to be able to immediately let all of Instagram and Facebook know exactly what we’re doing in that particular moment.
When I think about my experiences, some of the best times in my life I don’t have a picture for. This is true for my everyday life and my travels. The times I truly saw with my own eyes and heart instead of my camera are the ones that hit me the most, even brought tears to my eyes.
Truly unplugging yourself from the outside world and looking around you is something a picture will never be able to give you. Pictures can’t represent the time I got lost and took the wrong bus and ended up having stories my friend and I still laugh about to this day. They can’t tell the story of the time I became close with one of my best friends and had some of the greatest conversations of my entire life while we were completely lost in the streets of Prague. They don’t represent the train rides I took when I finally figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
My advice to those who travel is this: take that infamous picture of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Big Ben in London and the Great Wall of China. What you capture will be something you look back on for the rest of your life. But be sure to put the camera down and look around you. Take a deep breath and let the beauty around you sink in and let yourself be completely in that moment. Those are the moments you never get back. Those are the moments that cannot ever be captured.
(Feature Photo via Tumblr)