My Camera Is My Life: A Post About Meaning of Life You Prob Won't Read

I was watching some tag videos on youtube while procrastinating and one of the questions that popped up was: "if your house was on fire, what would you save?"

I thought about it for a second and I realized I would save all the family photo album, my laptop, and most importantly my canon dslr.  The clothes, shoes, and makeup that I have come to love can be easily replaced compared to the physical memento of memories built into a timeline.  Once lost, these can never be replaced.  Sure, one can say the memories are still retained in the mind but psychologists reveal that our memories are not documented nor kept in a stable form.  Each time someone remembers a memory they are actually creating a new memory by stringing a familiar storylines in an attempt to fill in the missing blanks.

So we retain these biologically contaminated memories.  Memory triggers such as photos and memoirs, keep our memories in line - it may not be perfect, but it's better than nothing.  

Photos are just a magical creation to me.  With a click of a button, the targeted visual data is encoded, then translated into pixels that can physically retain the split moment forever.  I strive to live in the moment and for the moment and take nothing for granted (that is after I graduate...for now, I am a studying student enslaved by the rigorous courses that often leads me to question my existence and sanity).  Many people would suggest that, in order to live in such way, one can not and should not dwell so much in the past.  And that social media networks such as instagram and twitter is abusing the integrity of life by allowing us to document the silliest things.  It may be true for the general consensus who feed off of attention and gossip in order to survive this dog eat dog world (heck, this may not even be true because as Elbert Hubbart once said "History is gossip well told," and we all could learn from history), but what about those who truly document for themselves? 

If time permits, I would document everyday of my life and share it.  Life is an incredible journey where it repeats its self but not exactly in the same manner.  There is always something new to learn from and to share.  I idolize those vloggers and bloggers out there who post everyday for their time and commitment to their project.  A single video or a post may not be a phenomenal work of art but the string of posts that connect to years worth of timeline should be considered as one.

This brings me back to the point, without much acknowledgement to memories and the past how will you come to define your life's journey? Would you define it by your surrounding lifestyle?  In my sophomore year of high school my AP Euro teacher reminded me several times that there will be a day when you have to let go of this world, and when that time comes, letting go would be much easier if you were able to reflect back at how good and fulfilling your life was by having done all the things you would have wanted and lived the life you would have wanted.  If there was nothing to reflect back to at the end of the clock, what would that life mean? What would happen to the restless soul?

What my teacher was trying to get through to me was, making money is not the point of life, but to live is. Much like the general consensus today, I fear of becoming poor, unemployed, and dependent.  My feeble excuse is that, I didn't grow up with much money, so my parents decided to invest in their whole future into me.  My life doesn't only define me, but also my parents, hence the fear.  This fear of being poor isn't only shared by me, but a growing population in our society today.  This mindset had dramatically changed from the 60's where majority defined their life by philosophical achievements.  What is going on?

Living can also be an illusion only to be defined by other living beings. Kind of like, if the tree in a forest fell but not a living soul heard it, did it make a sound?  Naturally if "living and existence" is acknowledged by ourselves and others an impression is left behind, and given that internet and social media in a sense immortalized the documentations made proving our existence to those that see it, does it really degrade the integrity of our lives?

OK~~~~ I didn't not expect to write a freaking term paper on about photography and mass media defining the quality and integrity of our lives when I stated this post...

I just wasted like 2 hrs procrastinating from studying for my o-chem and food chem final that's in less than 10 hrs from now by defining the meaning of life....

Wow...seriously who does this D:

This is a sign I need to start taking arts and humanities classes again.  My heads been immersed in science waaaay to long that it's rebelling.