From the moment we’re born, our life and memories get captured in photographs—the ones our parents take of us on our birthdays to the adolescent selfies with crazy Snapchat filters. The newest trend is taking pictures of random things around you, like your cup of coffee or your friends sitting down for dinner, a beautiful tree or a bird. What are these actions, if not an attempt at preserving our life?
Handwritten letters, journal entries from years ago, notepad poetry, are present on our phones. Anything humans touch or hold is a piece of them. It has many memories connected with it, and these very memories shape up our life. Archiving your life is a way of not just preserving your memories but keeping a record of your progress, of who you were a year ago and who you are now—remembering how we were feeling on a particular day six years ago.
People always hold objects dear with sentimental values. Be it the pen your father gave you when you graduated, the special birthday card or the flowers pressed between a notebook’s pages. These objects are what tell our story and our life in materials and memories.
The best ways to archive one’s life are-
- Photography: One takes pictures of himself/herself and the people around you, or even strangers to a strange land. A photograph speaks a thousand words and is probably the easiest way to remember a part of your life. You can hold a picture in your hands or store it on your phone. It is a record of your life.
- Journal/diary: Writing about your day or anything memorable that happened has proven time and again as a great hobby. It is a way of boosting one’s mental health as well as confidence. Nowadays, there are creative writing journals available that give you a prompt each day for five years, making it super easy to record your progress over the five years all in one place. This makes it easy and entertaining to read as every year goes by.
- Scrapbook/Memory box: One can fill a scrapbook with images of receipts from all over the world as one travels. Objects that you hold dear can be kept inside a box forever. So that someday you can re-find that box while cleaning your house and be transported to different times in your life.
Why should you archive your life?
Recording your memories is of great importance to your present-day self. Not only can you learn from your own experiences and mistakes, but you can also gain insight into how naïve you once were and prepare yourself better moving forward. Self-awareness helps us grow as humans as well as makes for a richer and more meaningful experience.
The very things and stories that might seem usual and irrelevant to you today could lend strength and comfort to you in the future. There is no harm in making a file of your life. After all, this is the longest and probably the most incredible journey.
