As a child, me, along with my siblings and close friends, always whined and complained whenever our parents asked for us to pose for a picture. As unwilling as we were, we lined up anyways and plastered smiles onto our faces. Sometimes they took pictures of us opening birthday gifts, and other times it was us eating dinner at a restaurant as a reward for doing well in school. Any time a picture could be taken, parents snatched the closest cameras and snapped candids and posed photos. Honestly, it was annoying. Sometimes I cried and other times I pouted, trying anything I could to get out of having to take a picture.

Years later, I look back and am thankful for all of the forced pictures. I see myself and my friends when we were young, having the times of our lives. Pictures capture the moments you want to remember, and even if I had known that something went wrong on the day the picture was taken, I felt that despite it all, there was still something good that happened as well. On that awful day, I still smiled and laughed and was able to make millions of memories.

Taking pictures is something that I always cherish now. Going out with friends, I always want to make sure that I am able to capture every moment I can so that in a few days, months and years I will look back and remember the good times. I try to take pictures and live in the moment whenever I can because I want my future self to look back and think of how much fun I was having when all of these pictures were taken. Sometimes pictures don't turn out the way we want them, and over the years I have discovered that the imperfect ones make for the best memories. Someday, the pictures I take now are going to be the only things I can remember, so I try and make them into the best memories that I can.