Restless Feet

Here we are, round two of Photo Friday. I have to confess, this might be my favorite post to write every week. I love going back through old Facebook pictures and photo albums and reminiscing.

Today’s Photo Friday picture is inspired by a quote from The Office, a TV show which I have adored for the past 5 years. I’ve spent countless hours watching Seasons 1-8 and falling deeper in love with Jim each episode. One of my favorite Jim & Pam episodes are the ones leading up to their wedding and their wedding day. Watching these episodes, for a moment, I forget that I’m watching a TV show. For a moment, I forget that Jim and Pam are just actors. For a moment, I believe that their love is a real, deep and true love.

And that, my friends, is what makes The Office such a great TV show

Jim and Pam’s relationship reminds me of how my ex-boyfriend Paul and I’s relationship started back in high school. You may (or may not) know that for almost 7 years I’ve had an on again off again relationship with Paul. We met in high school, became best friends, and eventually started dating (after I dated his friends and rejected his numerous requests to go to dinner – sorry Paul!). Although we broke up, we never had a problem staying friends. In fact, besides about a month of taking time apart, we immediately fell back into our friendship. I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy. At times it was complicated, confusing and downright painful.

However, I wouldn’t change a thing.

I’m lucky enough to have been able to keep my best friend these past two years that we haven’t been together. I know it’s not normal, I know our friends judge us and think it’s strange – but it’s worked for us. We’ve tried being apart, we’ve tried not speaking. The result? We were both miserable. We’re happier when we’re part of each other’s lives. I’m lucky to have him in my life. Although now isn’t the right time for us to be together, who knows what the future holds?

So this Photo Friday is dedicated to the memories we shared, the lessons we’ve learned, and the paths we’ve taken to lead us here today. Here’s to the future, here’s to what might have been, here’s to what might still be…

“For a really long time, that’s all I had. Little moments with a girl who saw me as a friend. And, a lot of people told me I was crazy to wait this long for a date with a girl I work with but I think, even then I knew.. I knew that I was waiting for my wife.” -The Office

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Past Photo Fridays: 5/10/13: {Standstill}

Yesterday I was cleaning out my desk and stumbled upon hundreds of old photographs. They were sitting in an old folder in my bottom drawer, and were pictures ranging from middle school to college. These photos were (at the time) what I considered the “rejects”. Not pretty, cool, or interesting enough to be put into a frame or out on display. As I found myself going through these photos, I kept having flashbacks to these different points in my life.

One photograph transported me back to the summer before 8th grade. It was a photograph of my three best friends and I with bandanas around our head and Mathlete shirts on. How could I have forgotten that I spent an entire summer at a math camp. MATH CAMP. LIKE, HOW DID I FORGET THIS? I remember the four of us wanting to dress the same and decided on matching shirts and bandanas rolled up like gangsters (because we weren’t cool enough already?).

Another photo I stumbled across brought me back to my very first spring break in college. We had gotten a timeshare at the same hotel as my (then) boyfriend and his friends and were ready for a week of tanning, drinking, and fun. I’m guessing this photo was taken before someone tossed something off our balcony and we got kicked out of our room. The very first night. With no refund. Oh, and then had to fit 15 people into one hotel room (thanks, Paul + company!).

It’s crazy to think how quickly life passes us by. You remember the big moments, the important moments. But what about all those meaningful moments that get stored in the bottom drawer of your brain? I don’t want to have any “reject” memories, I want to remember it all.

A photograph is the one thing that can make time standstill. It can capture a memory and freeze a moment forever. After 24 years, I have thousands of photographs. Of my childhood, my graduation, my nights out with friends. Photo Friday is here to share those photos that might not be the prettiest, may not be the best, but have a story behind them. A story that was captured in a freeze frame, a memory that will be memorialized forever, a moment I don’t ever want to forget.

“She was the purest beauty, but not the common kind

She has a way about her that made you feel alive.

And for a moment, we made the world standstill.”