A Picture Speaks

I was tagged by Renu and the rules are:

• Pick the 6th picture of your 6th photo folder.

• Tell a story around it.

• Pass it on to six other people you like.

So when I saw this a few days ago I was like: Oh my God please don't let it be a picture of me looking cross-eyed or something equally bad. Even before I checked to see what the picture was I was tempted to select any "cool" picture from one of my albums and pass if off as the 6th of the 6th. How ever, to be fair, I arranged my folders according to Name, and then looked. And this is what I found:


These are my last set of college gal pals. I say last because I have been to 4 colleges so far in my life, and a degree and two post graduations later the greatest lesson I have learned is that GOOD friends are REALLY hard to find. (If my mother hears of this she would say "You didn't have to waste my money on college tuition to learn THAT - I could have told you for FREE!) This picture was taken when we went bowling - a farewell party of sorts. We had ordered mocktails (or was it cocktails?) and were generally acting very silly, high on life and the spirit of the moment but deep down, scared of what the future held for us. Maybe I should just speak for myself here. This was not a reflection of our confidence in our abilities but more a fear becoming "responsible" and getting our act together. No more "care free, partying, calling home for money" mode. The fact that I am about 2-6 years older than them makes it worse because I have no excuse for not having made something of my life.

I see that a picture that's meant to kindle fond memories is actually turning out to be a lament on why I am such a loser. What REALLY pushed me to get down to this Tag was this picture which I saw on Nat Geo a few minutes ago (I subscribe to their online newsletter) :

"It was," said Sharbat Gula, "the will of God."

The first image appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. I STILL have a tattered poster of this image from my school days. This Afghan girl has haunted many with her eyes. The suffering she has been through is evident. What really touched my heart is the fact that we're both women, we're both the same age and yet the paths we walked were so different and it shaped our lives accordingly. When I see this picture, I realize how lightly I take the wealth of opportunities that have come my way. If I make a promise now to grab every opportunity it would be in poor taste, because it would fall among the pile of many promises I have made to myself over the years. Let this image then merely serve as a reminder that I DID have good intentions for my life, and perhaps when I look back on life 5 years from now I will have less regret and more patience.