To You

Let me ask you this question, when was the last time you sat down and just looked through your old yearbooks? When you take a look at the past you essentially look back at the person you once were as a kid to the person you are now as an adult. Yet, you not only look back at yourself, you also look back at the people who you associated with who either had direct or indirect contact in your life. The memories and moments shared throughout the years of your life, as well as, the lives of others who were a part of it are captured live and in living color. For it can be said that a picture can say a thousand words but quite frankly it can't reveal thoughts or emotions that nobody really knows except for you at that particular time and place.

Each and every one of us tends to cringe when one looks back at pictures of ourselves in a book that is a representation of a time capsule. A time capsule that represented your own humble beginnings as a young adolescent trying to find one's own identity all the while trying to fit in a particular social group. Its within one's own personal time capsule that it had such remarkable individual, duo, or group shots of particular people who were considered most likely to succeed, most athletic, most witty, most attractive, best all around, best dressed, most intelligent, most friendly, most flirtatious, most talkative, best personality, most friendly, and most likely to end up on an episode of cops. So the question can be asked, were you ever any of the above mentioned?

Without a doubt, some of the funniest, weirdest, saddest, funnest, and craziest times are captured and forever cemented in one's own history of life. However, those captured still shots can never compare to the actual atmosphere and energy of where one was and who he or she was with, which is why it's considered such a memorable one. Oftentimes, a person can over exaggerate what happened during that particular moment in time to the point where he or she actually believes the tales he or she is spinning. Whether or not it was with friends or with a boyfriend/girlfriend that one may or may not be with anymore it was a priceless memory that one hopefully still treasures to this day.

In any case, when you take a look back down memory lane and see certain individuals what emotions do you get when you look at his or her picture. For some people, the two basic emotions that tend to stir up are infatuation and love because that particular guy or girl had some type of effect on you that when you look at his or her picture one's emotions still run deep for that person Unfortunately, for other people, emotions such as anger and bitterness can bring about resentment due to how he or she was treated by that particular person or persons. For its when you see or bump into these particular people do you still feel the same emotions for that person or have you matured enough to move on with your life?

In retrospect, I attended school overseas in Ceiba, Puerto Rico from 1994-1996, I considered my classmates not just friends, but family due to being part of the military. Looking back in my yearbook, I had countless friends; but there were 7 of us who hung out together and were known as The Slackers. Though it absolutely had nothing to do with being lazy, it was just a name that stuck when my art teacher kept preaching to us about not being slackers. It was that same art teacher, Mr. Rashid, who wrote in my yearbook that art is life; create, look, draw what you see and what I can conceive can be. In the end, I say this to you as my friends wrote this to me 9 years ago: stay sweet, stay cool, and don't ever change.