Backwards and Forwards

In case you aren't aware of this, I am going to be a senior in high school this coming school year. If you've been a senior, you'll know that means stress. Lots of it. But I think, for me at least, senior year also means memories. Not necessarily amazing senior year memories, but getting the chance to look back over the last seventeen to eighteen years of memories that I have made so far.

The past few weeks and months I've begun to tackle some of the biggest projects ever: photos. Now, some people might be like, "Oh, well, just put some on a few pieces of cardboard a few weeks before your graduation party/open house. You'll be fine!" but they obviously do not know me. I am the creative girl who tries her best to overdo every creative project I've ever done. You want me to make you a slideshow? Alright, it'll just be ten to fifteen minutes long with amazing music, awesome transitions, and the ability to make you cry. You want me to take pictures of your baseball team? Oh, well, I'll just go ahead and take about 3,000 pictures and then put them into a twenty minute slideshow and burn it to 14 DVDs so the whole team will remember this season. I could go on, but what's the point, right? I plan to really outdo anything I've seen at a graduation open house/party. Sure people have loads of pictures and it's gorgeous and you just wanna sob at all their stuff, but why do that when you can top them?

I first decided to create a scrapbook (like legit Creative Memories awesomeness) with photos from about elementary school until I graduate. I have thousands of pictures. Some I scrapped and just didn't use, but most of the ones I've printed, I plan on attacking. I also have movies stubs, wristbands, flyers, signatures, etc. (By the way, I cannot wait to scrapbook LeakyCon. It's gonna be the bomb.) At the moment I am very scattered as to what time I have scrapbooked. I also haven't added any writing to remember the events. I might end up just leaving it blank...who knows.

Second, I came up with an idea from Pinterest. There is a pin about a wedding guestbook where you basically make a digital scrapbook on Shutterfly or something, and then have people sign that...I figured , "Hey! That's way more fun than a stupid notebook or some posterboard!" So now I am mostly done (but still need senior year photos) with a digital scrapbook with a few blank pages for signatures. It's beautiful. I cannot wait to finish it and order it in the future.

Thirdly, I came up with the idea of a slideshow. Now, I know you're thinking "But people won't be able to stop and just look at multiple pictures at once!" Yes, I realize that. That's what the scrapbook/guestbook are for. The slideshow has pictures I've scanned in along with beautiful music and basically more of my crazy friend pictures. The pictures I can use for blackmail in the future. The fun pictures. Right now it's about forty minutes long, and I'm not even done yet. I'm super excited about that one too. It's probably gonna play on my TV throughout the party.

Lastly, you're probably thinking "I DON'T CARE HOW MANY PICTURES OF YOU YOU HAVE!" I found some old DVDs of me acting and some other things. I also have videos I've made with friends. So, I decided that I will most likely put that stuff up my laptop or some other TV. I'll just need a massive playlist or something. I am so happy to share those obnoxious videos too. People are gonna laugh.

But I think the most important thing out of all of this is that I really miss a lot of people. People who I haven't talked to in years. People who I haven't even seen in years. And I want to invite a lot of them to my open house/party. Not because I want more money or anything, but because I want to see how they've changed as well as me. I want to talk to them about what they're doing, find out about their families, and I want to know if they're even similar to who I once knew. A lot of these people are people in my class, but a lot of them are also old teachers and adults who meant a lot to me. And it's sad to think that I can't go back. I can't see all the people who helped out with my summer acting workshops. I can't see the people from elementary school who made me want to read. I can't even see my old best friends. You may have moments in your life where you just hate people and you hate your friends and you just want to go off to college already, but then when you start looking through old memories, you realize that you really miss the old you. Because everyone changes in high school. And when you get out, you can't go back.

To all the people I pushed away or forgot about or lost touch with: I will find your address or email or Facebook in order to invite you to my open house/party. I need to see your face and hear your voice.