empower
J
Final Exam
SPRING 2018
maskmatters.org
95
W
hen I was 12 years old, I discovered my grandfather’s
Polaroid camera. I would walk around the
neighborhood for hours, taking photos until I ran
out of film.That’s when I put some film into a 35mm
camera and fell even more in love with photography.
I still remember the first roll of film I shot—because I ruined it.
My grandfather told me, “Now when you’re done, we’ll reroll it and
then we can develop it.” So after I’d taken the 24th photograph, I
popped the back open and tried to roll it back up by hand, exposing
the images to the light. I cried about it all night until he handed me
another roll and told me to be patient and always try again. Since
then, I’ve been hooked on film.
I adore my grandfather. Aside from the fact that we
can communicate through our cameras, the reason I
treasure him so much is that he can empathize with me
even if he doesn’t always understand me.
When I tell people about my life, they tend to worry about me. I
understand the worries, but I know that good news takes longer to
process. So when I tell them that the past is truly in the past and that
I’m happy now, they don’t understand.
Oftentimes, I compare this to a retelling of a story, like the
myths of Greece or Rome.We can’t forget about the past because it’s
important to acknowledge that it happened. But we can’t get stuck
dwelling on something that happened lifetimes ago because we have
different worries today…and that’s OK.
LEARNING
TO
LOVE
MYSELF
By // Anonymous
