I saw an optimistic young man who had gone through a lot of downfall in life. He has dealt a lot of griefs, pain, loneliness, emptiness, heartbreaks, and even suffered with depression but his smiles always excite the joy that keeps his positive outlook in life. Despite being always set aside, taken for granted, and being always the last option, those never stopped him to still be good to others and give the best company that everyone deserves. That's how he loves people, that's how he values relationships. Even though the circles of friends he's part of always make him feel like an outcast, that never caused him to refrain from making rooms for people in his heart. He never knew the feeling of being someone's favorite, but because of love, he's enough loving people even without receiving the exact same intensity and compassion that he's giving. After all, he believes that loving people is the most fulfilling thing to experience regardless whether something comes in return or none. And his faith and love make him grip on the idea that God loves him so much and no other human being in this world can match that magnitude of love.
One day, one of his classmates saw him taking pictures on the nice nature views and even with his other friends. Taking pictures is the usual thing he does. He likes taking pictures with nature, with people, and even with other simple stuffs. His classmate then approached him because of the curiosity that was awakened by the mystery on why does he often take photos.
"Bro, can I ask you something?" his classmate openly approached while he just nodded as a sign of agreement.
"I always notice that you are fond of taking pictures almost in everything that excites you. I also noticed that you have a lot of pictures with different people in your album. Would you mind sharing the reason why? By the way, don't get me wrong. I'm just curious because you know... I just wanna feed this skeptical mind of mine. I'm just really curious if there's more to capturing photographs that's why you always do it."
He smiled so genuinely. "Taking a picture is not just having something to print or to browse in your gallery or photo albums. It's also about capturing moments that can never be rewound in different time-frames of life. In scientific perspective, taking photos is the same thing as capturing light. And capturing light is also behind why we are able to see everything we see. These lights being captured represent the elements that make our life meaningful. And those are felt in a form of happy moments, the exercises of relationships, and other enjoyable encounters that'll all be collected as memories. You know, we can never freeze the time in a way that we want it to be like because time moves forward which indicate our increasing ages here on earth. We will all age, wrinkle, turn our hairs into gray, lose our teeth, curve our backs, be weakened, and even become forgetful as we head the line that'll end our contract in this world. However, we can freeze the time in the photographs we make, and that's the only way we can do to trick the mechanism of time. What I'm saying is that, cherish the opportunity and privilege to collect the records of the life that we've lived. Because only by this way we can maximize the treasure box in our hearts that'll soon be opened when the old age come. Our ability to retain memories is temporary, and through photographs we'd able to go back on the time that made us realize and define the beauty of living. And it feels so complete having such photographs because through the pictures that we captured, it allows us to refresh and reminisce the moments and feel again the feelings anchored in those photographs even when we can no longer bring back the people we made great memories with." he smiled so soulfully which left his friend in tears.
I smiled when I realized something. Never lose the chance to capture great moments. Never hold back to maximize your time to spend it with people you love and get a souvenir that would serve as the witness which caters the love that works behind it. Having something to look back on might make us feel happy or sad depending on the realizations that we perceive the moment we unfold something that belongs to the past. But on the other side, this will also give the fulfillment and satisfaction because we have the records that reflect the kind of journey that made us whole today. Don't be ashamed of keeping things like photographs, souvenirs, presents, or other stuffs that we'll be treasuring on our very last stage on earth. 'Cause these things store memories, people, and relationships that we'll forever treasure until our last breath. Nevertheless, cherish your moment with the people you love. Not everyone has the mean for photography or whatever, so it's better to simply enjoy the moment at its full extent. Remember, egos and pride as well as awkwardness are just inhibitors to live life to the fullest. Always grasp the opportunity to tell the people you loved that you love them. Never lose the chance to hug and kiss them. Don't let your day be spent without having something meaningful at all. After all, it's still our souls which hold the record of our existence. One thing, one of the only certain things in this world is the uncertainty of when will we die. So always live your life as if it's your last day, because only by the way we can appreciate time, people, relationships, and life itself. Shalawam!
