Human beings have the natural desire to keep certain things to remind them of their past, goals, families, friends, relationships, and other significant events throughout their lives. Some people keep trophies from the big game they won, souvenirs from their favorite vacation spot they once traveled to, and others keep a photo album of memories from those places. I am one of the “Photo Album people” I keep lots of photos I’ve seen either on my phone or on my computer in the Photos folder. Each one of the photos holds a story behind it, why I decided to take the photo, why I decided to take it of that object and why I decided to keep it  Some of them are quite sentimental to me, a select few of them are funny and make me laugh when I am feeling down, other photos are useful tips and helps I use in my everyday life. Several of the photos I have are once in a lifetime opportunities I have either witnessed, seen and I never want to forget. When I was downloading these photos onto the computer to make space for something else my mom came in and asked me, “Why do you have this photo?” I just sat there with a blank face. For at least a minute had no response except for a shrug of my shoulders and eventually I said “I really don’t know I just like it.” A few weeks  before the Winterpocalypse got into full swing, we had just gone to an Ice Festival in Ann Arbor, there were dozens of ice sculptures throughout the park, there was even a mini ice shack .All of the sculptures were amazing, both my mom and I took several photos of the sculptures before we left. It’s good to keep a memory of that event rather than to lose it.

Some of the sentimental photos on my phone/computer are pictures of my old house, that was the place I grew up in (even though I wasn’t born in there), it was the first house that I could really call Home. I took several photos from the time we began to pack up and get everything loaded up onto the moving truck and from the day we left. Most were photos of an empty rooms with no furniture or decorations but in my mind I could see everything there before it became the barren room in front of me. Before we left my mom came into my old room and said. “Its time to go, we almost have everything packed up in the truck and cars.” I replied with “ Yeah, I know I’ll be out in minute.” I then thought to myself “Even though this is the third move I’ve had in my life it still never gets easier to leave the house.” A couple other photos were the first Christmas that I had with the new kittens we saved from the shelter the winter before we moved here. They enjoyed jumping into the tree and knocking off some of the ornaments we had in the tree. Other times they would climb in the tree and we wouldn’t find them until they started moving around in the tree making a commotion. Even if the photos were lost in the computer or my phone the kittens would be the last link to my home. There are a few photos in there of my old town in Indiana on the summer when we came back to visit and see all of our old friends. That was back in 2011 so I’m not sure how everything has changed since then. One of my favorite photos is the new statute they put in, a twenty foot tall Mantis. I dont know what it symbolizes but I thought it was pretty cool it’s a long lasting memory of my home.
On my phone there are several dozen photos that I have saved while I was browsing on iFunny, as the name implies several of them are pretty funny. Several are funny jokes people came up with, others are memes that bring a smile to my face on a rough day. Back when we were driving up here from Indiana to bring myself to a happier mood I would open up my phone and look at all the photos and bring a smile to my face for a short period of time during the drive. Some of the photos that I saved are not photos by me but by others that I chose to save. Even if something isn't yours it doesn't mean that you can't save it and admire it.
The other photos I have are “Life Hacks“ they are useful helps and tips to life I either use every day or I will some day need to use. Quite a few of these skills I never would have thought of on my own and I am glad that I decided to keep it and better myself for the future. Some of these I already knew from when I am working on various projects in the house with my dad. Almost all of them are used to better your life in different yet useful ways. Some are food related like how to determine if something is cooked right or how to cook several delicious meals. Others are cleaning methods that make chores that should take hours go by in a few minutes. It makes everything a lot easier when my parents, my brothers, and I are cleaning the house before guests arrive and we are really short on time. There are lots of people out here and when our ideas are combined we discover something new and spectacular about everyone.
The remainder of the photos I have on my phone are the once in a lifetime events anyone will rarely see again. One of my personal favorite is three stars that perfectly aligned with the great pyramids last summer. Another favorite is the picture when I was a top the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee back I was in 7th grade. We went there on a school trip and after a two hour hike up the mountain we were able to see across the entire park’s valley, I could see for what seemed like forever before the trees got too tall to see over. I have a few of when I was on an airplane and I was above a city or field and took photos of the landscape. While I was down in Florida two summers ago with a group of friends we went on a week long trip throughout the Florida keys. I had an underwater camera and took several photos that no one else could have like fish, lobster, a nurse shark tail, and a sunken ship about thirty feet down. We were also on land and visited several different restaurants and museums with lots of cool decorations in them. I had to turn off the flash in the buildings so several of the photos were quite dark.  Each photo has a special story behind it, there just has to be an explanation of its purpose. After all, who knows how many photos we are in and how many stories we have been a part of without even knowing so.