"The best part about pictures is even if the people in the photo change, the memory it contains never will" - Anonymous

Cleaning out my room a few weeks ago I came across a few photo albums from when I was little. Looking through these photos brought back so many cherished memories. Some of my favorite photos are of playing sports or team pictures and pictures of my friends and I laughing or going out. My absolute favorite are those that can tell a story. You know those pictures that you can look at and remember everything that went on that day, those pictures that make you laugh or smile and bring you back to a simpler time.

As I was reliving the past through these photos I started to wish that I had taken more. There are hundreds of baby pictures, first day of school pictures and team pictures. All holding good memories, but I don't have many from around the age twelve to about seventeen. I feel as if I am missing a chunk of my life because of my refusal to take pictures. I was that friend who would cover her face in the picture or would be the one offering to take the picture so I wouldn't be in it. After high school I realized that I didn't take as many pictures with my friends than I should have, so when I started college I decided it was time to change. They say these years are the best years of your life and what's a better way to reminisce those times than with a picture.

Since staring college I've stayed true and have taken more pictures with my friends, but wish I would have realized the importance of pictures earlier. Sure you can still have memories without a picture, but I feel if you have a picture it can make that memory last longer. I have thousands, literally thousands of pictures with my friends and my sister, but I don't have many with my brother or parents. I take them for granted, thinking that they will always be here to take pictures, but things change and life happens and even if you see them all the time ask for that picture on holidays, save the stupid snaps you take with your siblings because even if you took it while driving to the supermarket its a memory.

Pictures tell a story. Pictures are a piece of art. Pictures are a memory. So be that annoying friend who always asks for a picture to be taken before going out, be that family member who just snaps a picture of the table at Thanksgiving or Christmas, take pictures of your siblings if they play sports or are going out to a friends birthday party. Because even though they may think its annoying at the time when they look back at those pictures years to come they will thank you for capturing a memory. A picture is more than a piece of paper for it holds a story worth a thousand words.