Frozen In Time

I spent this weekend in Las Vegas at my grandparents' house. When I visit them I experience a severe time warp where I revert back to when I was 18 years old. The reason for this trippy ride is that all the pictures on the wall of me are from either my last yearbook photo or my high school graduation day.

You may be saying, "Well that's the same for everyone! Grandma's house is always like that... for everyone!" No. The reason this is a problem for me, particularly, is that all of my immediate family members either work for the school district or are still in school. ....You see the problem? That's right. Every year they get their picture taken at school, and every year they give a new and updated picture to grandma. The resulting Benjamin Button-esque effect is surreal for me. As my images remain frozen in time, everyone else on the wall around me grows older. Progresses. I try not to read into it, but my brain usually notices and conjures up analogies, philosophies, and soliliquies about what that might say about my own real life.

Yes, I know, there is one obvious solution to this. I could get my photo taken every year as well and join the march toward death with everyone else. But somehow I just can't bring myself to make a solo visit to Kiddie Candids for a mugshot every May. Think of the explaining I would feel I would have to do, and the involuntary blushing my body would traitorously exhibit! No. It's too humiliating, even for me.

I face this same problem in all the family households I visit. In my own parent's home I am mortified to be confronted at every turn by braces-wearing 13-year-old me, or socially awkward 17-year-old me. I usually solve this problem by keeping my eyes turned to the floor.

I've never really thought of this before, but... maybe everyone else envies my photos? Maybe the rest of my family wishes they too could stop time and let the world grow around them? Maybe.... But I wish the world had stopped for me at age 23 instead.

KW