Birdwell, Bryn
British Literature
This, I Believe First Draft
27 August 2015

It seems as though life goes by in a blur. One day you are young and full of life, the next you are struggling to complete daily tasks that once came so naturally. I believe that life should be preserved through memories and, most importantly, pictures. Marc Riboud, a French photographer, once said, “taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” At the time, it may seem like a measly piece of photocopy paper, but years later, when you are looking into the past and wishing for that time back, nothing in the world will mean more than that single photograph. Five years ago, I lost my brother, Joseph, to Ewing Sarcoma. I understood that he was very ill, but never did I imagine his death was right around the corner. Everyday with him, I took for granted. I always thought that we would have tomorrow, but that is not always the case. Less than a year after being diagnosed, my family and I were making the eight-hour drive to Houston, Texas to say our good-byes, knowing that there would be no tomorrow for my brother. Today, I am always looking at the few photographs I have of us together and sincerely regret not having taken more. I have always been camera shy, but that should not stop anybody from capturing every moment of their lives, good or bad. One day you’ll look back and, no matter how bad it may have seemed at the time, you’re going to wish for that very moment back. One of the few photos I have with my brother is one of him and me in our soccer uniforms sitting on the bench at his soccer game. At the time, I begged my father to delete it because I was as red as my jersey from being sunburned, and my hair was an absolute mess, and my huge, cheesy smile advertised many of my most recent tooth-fairy visits. My father refused, saying that eighty years from now when my brother and I were deteriorating away in a nursery home, we would look back at that very picture and wish we were that young once again. Of course, then, none of us had the slightest idea that our time of wishing for the past would come so soon. Now that my brother is gone and I only have a handful of photos of us to reminisce with, I always go back to the lesson that my father taught me that warm sunny day at the park: no matter what the circumstances are, never give up an opportunity to capture a moment in time. Whether it be a happy memory, something sad, or even something completely embarrassing, take a moment to snap a few pictures, for when it is your time to have to look back into the past, you will be happy that you did. This, I believe.