Trying to care about the past

This might seem like a weird thing to say on a scrapbooking group, but I'm starting to think that I don't really care about my past that much. I first got into this hobby when I did a book for my sister, because I knew that she cared about her history. But what keeps me going, really, is the art of it, not the history and the memories. When I'm looking at old pictures, I don't feel much more emotion than if I were looking at pictures of someone else. I notice the lighting, the composition of the photo, whether it was in focus, all the technical stuff first. Whereas my dad and my sister will be all "Oh, I remember this! That was when blah blah blah happened and etc." And, like, even though I was _there_ I still don't remember.

This is how bad my memory is: about 10 years ago, a friend of my sister's lived with us for about 6 months, and I have no recollection of this at all. I don't remember my first kiss, my first day of school, any of the names of my teachers from elementary school or high school. I can't remember learning to swim, ride a bike, or use a sewing machine. And the sewing one is weird, because that couldn't have been when I was really little, you know?

So, when I scrap old photos, it only brings back the vaguest of memories. When other people reminisce about their childhoods, and they look so happy and comforted, I feel like I'm missing out on something, some important part of life. But then I feel like there's just so much going on now, and the past is gone, and I'm not even that person anymore, and if it had been important I would have remembered right?

Reply to
Luna
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So don't worry about the past... from what you posted previously it sounds like you had a pretty traumatic one (or only the traumatic parts made enough emotional impact to stay with you...) so it's not really surprising that you can't feel any positive emotions about it. That's okay. Nobody says you 'have to' do anything in particular when it comes to scrapping.

Rather than worrying about the distant past, it might be a good thing for you to scrap the positive things and events in your present and more recent past... that way in future years you'll have the good memories preserved for you and it might help you keep them in your memory in years to come...

Reply to
Karen AKA Kajikit

Scrapping is an art. The art of what is important to you.

If a scene or a photograph is important that is all that matters.

Think of it as a time capsule of places that may or may not be there in say 50 years from now.

Just remember, Monet paper pieced in his later life because he couldn't create the water colors of his past because he was an impressionist but couldn't count on his memory of what he saw. So he just cut paper out of boredom.

However it is his paperpiecing that I feel is his best work.

Kate

Reply to
a-scrapbooking-diva

I say don't worry about it. If you have some old pictures laying around just organize them in a box or put them in a photo album, the kind you just slide in. I'm not as interested in doing the old pictures but they are all put away for when I feel like it. Scrap the pictures you like and tell the stories you want to tell. I think this is a hobby so it should stay fun and not become a job.

Luna wrote:

Reply to
dizzy d

Well said Karen. I agree that scrapbooking doesn't have to be about the past. Scrapbooking is so flexible and so creative that it can be what ever you "need" it to be. You have a lot of talent and we enjoy seeing the results.

-- Amy L.

Reply to
Amy in Springboro

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