I know what you’re thinking. Selfies are one of the most intoxicating cries for attention. Almost every selfie I see on Facebook has the hashtag #SelfieWanker. This is a desperate attempt to seem like you’re not a selfie freak.
But I’m a huge selfie fan and my resolution for 2015 is to take more selfies.
When I travel, I take hundreds, even thousands, of photos of beautiful landscapes, local people, delicious food, cultural landmarks, beautiful sunsets, and more. But I have very few photos of myself! There is no evidence that I was there.
As someone who is usually behind the camera, I am a little camera shy. I love taking photos of other people and capturing moments from their travels, but I hate showing myself on camera.
When my boyfriend takes a picture of me, I secretly delete it right away. Then I lamented the lack of photos of me from my vacation and blamed it on his terrible photography skills, not my sneaky deletions!
But I finally realized it was time to get over myself.
Who cares if I have a funny smile or a double chin? Although my butt looks fat now, I have no doubt that I will miss my size 10 butt in 20 years. Who cares if your arms are shaking when you’re standing on a beautiful beach? And when I climb to the top of Everest (which I plan to do someday!), I definitely won’t look like a supermodel.
When I look back at old photos, I don’t notice any stains or sagging arms, and it seems like I’m having fun. They remind me of memories I had forgotten, and my only regret is that I didn’t keep more of these photos.
Christmas is almost here, and I don’t think it will be long before family photo albums are released. They come out every year and make us say “oohs” and “aahs” and laugh and point. The story behind each photo changes slightly over the years, but we all pretend we don’t notice because it gets funnier and more dramatic each year. We giggle when we look at baby pictures, we laugh at our father’s lush hair, we admire how attractive our mother always was, and we pause at pictures of our grandparents with sadness and nostalgia.
The albums sadly stopped when I was 13 and my brother was 15. We suddenly felt too cool to go out and take pictures with our parents, and her mother suddenly refused to be in the same room with her camera. According to the photo album, it looks as if nothing has happened in the past few years, but in reality, a lot of fun things have happened!
I think I’m getting sentimental now that I’m about to give birth, but I want to carry on the tradition of photo books. I can’t wait to see my baby in my selfies because I want him to see me having fun and traveling the world. (I’m currently trying to take a selfie with my dog, but he doesn’t understand it.)
I don’t want to just capture the moments when I look glamorous at a party or get a tan on the beach, I want to capture everything. We want it to be a true record of our lives, not just highlights.
So I’m going to be the selfie guy that everyone hates, but I don’t care, in 10 years I’m going to have an amazing photo album!
If you want to be the ultimate selfie fanatic, get yourself a selfie stick
. I should be more embarrassed to admit my love for selfie sticks, but it’s great. Get one! You won’t regret it.
Places where it’s not OK to take a selfie
- Gym – especially if you have perfect makeup on
- Have you heard of such a trend in funerals!?
- Pay attention to the road while driving!
Are there any other places you’d like to add to the list?