"Nostalgia cannot be sustained without loss"

The picture on the left shows my sister and I in front of our bunk beds in our little room on the disney cruise. The two if us are only 1 year a part and grew up doing everything together. We lived together, went to school together, played the same sports, and had almost all of the same friends. Most people know us as a package deal, up until this year. The photo on the right shows my sister and I at our last family dinner at home for the summer this passed August. Before I moved back down here to Flagler and she moved to a school in Pittsburgh. I never realized how much I would miss my sister until she left, because I thought I'd always have her around. Even during my first year at Flagler my sister moved here with me and we both went to school here. This year is not only the first year that we are not at the same school in our whole lives but it is also the first time we are apart in general for more than a very short period of time. If my sister had never moved away I do not believe I'd have as much nostalgia for the times we used to share.

                                                

"The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three dimensional into the miniature that which can be enveloped by the body."

This photo shows a polaroid of me, my sister, and one of our best friends on our trip to Florida last summer. This polaroid has reduced down so many memories and physical aspects of this trip. It shows my uncles boat, two of the people who mean the most to me and the spot we take the boat to every summer to spend time together. This tiny little picture holds so many mental and physical memories and reminds me of so much more than just a little boat ride with my family and friends. This was the first time I had ever taken my friend to meet my family in Florida and see where I used to live before I moved to Delaware and met her. It was a bigger deal than it may seem and it was almost as if my two worlds were colliding right in front of my eyes through out the whole trip. Going out on my uncles boat is something that I specifically look forward to every summer and having her there with us, I was really able to show her why I love it so much instead of just trying to explain it. 

"The body is the primary mode for perceiving scale."

This photo shows the day I went rock climbing as one of the work outs in a new training program I was doing. I am heavily invested into the gym and training so doing something new and exciting like rock climbing as a work out was really fun. My mom doesn't know much about working out and what I do at the gym and sometimes I feel like she doesn't realize how much hard work I actually have to do while Im there so showing her this picture really shocked her. Showing my size compared to the size of the wall really shows someone who wasn't there how tall the wall is and helps you realize how hard it must have been to climb. It even surprised me when looking at it after I was done, I hadn't even realized how high up I was. 

"To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy."

The photo above shows a souvenir from my grandmas elephant collection. Elephants are a big deal not only to her but to my whole family. My grandma always told us to decorate our house with elephants if we wanted good luck and now its something all members of my family do. This specific elephant is my grandmas favorite and I have always been so in love with it out of all of the ones in her house. I never even thought of asking her for it because I knew how much she loved it but when I moved into my first house on my own this passed year she surprised me by giving it to me as a gift and now it sits on a shelf right by the front door giving my roommate and I good luck as we come and go throughout our days. 

"Capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience"

This photo shows a few of the succulents I bought over the summer at the annual flower market festival in my hometown. This was a very emotional experience for me because every year I attend the flower market and my mom buys new plants to put in the front of our house for the summer. This passed summer was the first time I was able to buy plants to put in the front of my own house. It seems like a very minor experience but for some reason it didn't really hit me that I was going to be living completely on my own this year for the first time in my life until I bought these plants. Right now I have these plants surrounding my front door and they have almost doubled in size since I bought them, in some way it symbolizes how much I am growing at this point in my life while also reminding me of my mom.