a picture is worth a 1,000 words

My newest roommates (Jamie and Lauren) and I found an old school disposable camera this past Friday. So of course our first reaction was to just be ridiculous and bring the wind up camera wherever we went that evening. Needless to say we got stares from all around us as we whipped it out of our purses to snap a photo.

I took the camera to be developed today and came across a quite friendly photo specialist at Walgreens. I wasn't sure if he was just being kind because he had to or was it because he was a young buck himself and was spitting game towards me. I awkwardly smiled as i asked for my disposable camera to be developed even though we are in the year 2010 and full of widespread technology that discounts a disposable. After a quick joke back and forth he gave me the pick up time and I mentioned not judge the pictures that were taken because we were acting like complete fools.

As I walked out of Walgreens my head immediately went spinning about how many pictures this guy has seen in his specialist days. Think of all the bizarre, strange, beautiful, unique, odd, cute, poetic, and so on pictures he has flipped through in his days. He's seen hundreds upon hundreds of peoples memories and countless family vacations. When you think about it, he could have seen all parts of the world through photographs just being processed in that Walgreens he works in Nashville, Tennessee. So why do we push around the every day employee just because we think we can. He is just like us... working to get by day to day. He just gets to witness different aspects of so many peoples lives. It's irritating when I hear the person in front of me in line hurry up and get through the line as quick as possible. They never stop to ask their cashier or waitress, etc how their day is or how their life is going today. They're people too just like us. Appreciate the grocery bagger, gas station clerk, Target re-stocker, or even the Walgreens photo specialist.

All the pictures that my new specialist friend has gone through made me realize how precious and priceless pictures really are. Don't get me wrong I'm totally the person who complains usually when there is a big group picture, but in the end it's more than worthwhile. Pictures place a personal bookmark on every single chapter of our lives. They make a memory even more present and wonderful to us. And think we wouldn't have those physical memories to touch if it was for the photo specialist guy just around the corner.