Growing up, it was always a good time going down the rabbit hole of the bin of family photos — a huge storage bin filled with my siblings’ and my childhood photos, my mother’s childhood photos, and the pictures of my mom in her iconic 2000s era.
Digging through those pictures and seeing the distinct flash, the disposable camera look, in the classic four-by-six print, always felt so different than scrolling up into my camera roll. There is an emotional connection tied to holding physical photos. I’m able to remember actually holding the camera, the moment it was taken, and then the anticipation of waiting for the film to be developed and reliving the moments all over again.
Now, don’t get me wrong, technology has made capturing memories insanely easy and has innovated protected ways of storing the memories. We have evolved from developments of cameras and phones, starting with the camcorder and disposable cameras in my childhood, to now being able to use my phone and capture and store anything I want in one place.
However, it is important to me that when I’m older and I forget things, I can leave things behind for my nieces and nephews and even my future children. I want to give them a time capsule that they can look back on and see me, my thoughts, and my different phases of life, in the same way I reminisce about going through my family photo prints. So, I’m going to talk about the different things I do now for the future me and future mini-me.
scrapbooking
As someone who loves to try new hobbies, get creative, and take the time doing arts and crafts, scrapbooking has become a new beloved hobby. A hobby that is often thought to be reserved for grandmothers, scrapbooking has evolved with time, influencing other members of Gen-Z to get involved.
Junk-journaling is scrapbooking-adjacent, where you grab a journal and record different memories like trips to cafes, museums, vacations, and important events. It has gotten extremely popular in the past couple of years. Those who are into junk journaling take pretty much anything from that moment that could fit into the journal — things like napkins, wrappers, photos, and anything that can be cut up and glued down into the journal. Some like to even write in an entry reflecting on the day, along with all the little artifacts collected.
Personally, I prefer the more traditional way of scrapbooking with a post-bound scrapbook, gluing down photo prints on cute paper designs, adding stickers, and trying different layouts and ways to format the photos. I really appreciate the look of a large scrapbook page with a protective sleeve. I think a mix of the post-bound scrapbook and the junk journaling formats could come together to be a really modern and iconic way to hang onto different things like photos and randomly collected items.
I would convince anyone who enjoys photo prints to get into scrapbooking and have fun with the different pages dedicated to things like college formals, hometown summer hangouts, vacation days, and day trips into the city. It’s a physical and well-decorated copy of your memories, like a magazine that you can pull out and read through when you want to remember.
Journaling
Journaling is not only a really therapeutic way to express your emotions, think about things about your day, and express gratitude for the good things, but also is a way to record your day-to-day life. Journal entries are so intimate and thorough, but they do such a good job providing a literal copy of your thought processes, leaving you with the ability to reflect and read back on them at any time.
Life is filled with so many different struggles, achievements, and weirdly specific life events, but when you write them down, you leave behind a record showcasing your growth, mentally or emotionally. Nothing feels better than to read a past journal entry where you were so upset, whether it is in yourself or someone else, and just see how much you’ve grown since then. Sometimes, I am able to read back on past journal entries and just laugh at how ridiculous I was, and other times, I read my journal entries from when I was 13 and find myself still being so relatable, even seven years later.
Leaving a journal filled with entries of my life as a teen girl, my rough introduction into adulthood, and anything from this time in my life where I face obstacles and achieve things, creates a time capsule capturing any of the emotions I faced and how I’ve moved forward for my future self and my family to read. They can laugh, cry, be incredibly confused, and have an overall newfound appreciation for me leaving them such an artifact with every recounted moment in my life that has shaped me to be the person I am today.
Even the boring and uninteresting journal entries I appreciate because I can show those in the future what I would do on the random Tuesday afternoons and Friday nights I stayed in. They can read all about my different eras and hyper fixations, giggle at how obsessed I was with the chicken Caesar salad wrap from Gansett Wraps, and how I spent my random Monday night binging The Pitt and crocheting instead of doing homework. Sometimes, I will have a journal entry that, to most, sounds so uneventful and boring, but months and years from now, I can read about my favorite songs and what campus looked like. Passing it down along the line, I can leave my niece and future daughter life lessons, give them something to know that I have been there done that. My entries will give them reassurance that it is never truly the end when you’re 13 or even when you’re 20, and I’d like to think I’m still coming to terms with that idea.
camcorder, digital camera, disposables
I have a deep love and appreciation for printed pictures and disposable cameras. I feel so much more emotionally connected to the memory they represent, so it’s no surprise when I try to tell everyone not to lose the art of printing photos and using film cameras.
I grew up using a ton of disposable cameras, from the beginning of my childhood and up until my late pre-teen stage. With time and the development of new technology, film cameras have been able to become easier to develop, learn how to use, and are more accessible and affordable. Older and nicer quality film cameras can get pricey, but there are so many different affordable and accessible options. Film cameras are good for getting that nostalgic and classic picture that looks like it was taken in the 2000s.
Printing photos has also become easier with time, with so many different photo printing services like FreePrint and Shutterfly, and retailers like CVS and Walmart allowing you to upload photos to print photos of different sizes straight from your phone and create photobooks. I really like the idea of having my photos printed and compiled into a photo album that I can flip through when I’m bored or with friends and family.
Digital cameras have been incredibly popular for a couple of years now, which is good for nostalgia seekers like myself, but bad news as companies get greedier and mark up prices, discontinue models, and resellers sell for an insane amount.
Digital cameras can get really expensive, but if you want good quality pictures, you are usually left to make a sacrifice: it’s either the price or the quality, and usually you can’t get both. With the help of TikTok experts and Reddit threads with differing reviews, you can find a digital camera that fits your price point and what exactly you’re looking for. I own a Kodak PixPro FZ45 that I have had for a little over a year from Amazon. The camera was around $120, and it is the perfect camera for me.
The camera has a ton of different features and settings to play around with, a good flash, and a video recording setting with fairly good audio for a camera that isn’t really a video camera or crazy expensive. This camera is my pride and joy and leaves me with the best pictures ever. Printing pictures off a digital camera is also a really good way to get that same vibe you get with disposable camera photos. You can also keep an entire SIM card for your future children to stumble upon and look at the photos of you messing around with friends in your 20s.
This is mostly inspired by the fact that I grew up on Good Luck Charlie, but little video diaries and messages where you’re just talking to yourself or recording little moments that seem like nothing are similar to writing in a physical journal, but you’re able to see and hear your voice, emotion, and face. I have seen a lot of people talk about recording themselves talking about something in a video diary form on their laptop cameras or talking to themselves when they’re feeling the urge to beat a dead horse. While it seems silly to just sit in your room and talk to yourself, it can be really relaxing to just rant and talk about something as boring as your day, the exam you just took, or talking yourself through a breakup.
With a video diary, you can see the change happen over time, watch yourself heal, and hear yourself mature with different takes and ideas as life teaches you different lessons. Not only is it super therapeutic for you, but you are leaving little messages to those who watch it in the future, warning them of that one canon event and showing them actual evidence of how you overcame those struggles and grew.
Good Luck Charlie had always inspired me to record little moments and to appreciate them later on in life, leaving behind little messages for future siblings, children, nieces, and nephews who will watch them. I’d like to think that in a few years, when my niece is a teen and when the day comes to have children of my own, I can show them the videos of myself crashing out over the very same things they are bound to go through, and share some big sister advice or some general motivation that everything happens for a reason and that they will overcome whatever obstacle is making them feel like their entire world is crashing down on them.
The video diary format that people film on TikTok similar to @thezurkieshow where people sit in front of the camera, share some advice, reflect on some moments, and give words of wisdom is incredibly similar to Good Luck Charlie. Zurkie has created so many different videos surrounding so many different themes like friendships, relationships, feeling incomplete, self-love, and pushing individuality. Though some videos may seem like obvious thoughts you shared at the sleepover in middle school, I think that it’s important to hear it again from a different perspective time to time. Whether it is from a friend, peer, parent, or sibling, just hearing it again makes you feel less alone and can help you realize whatever it is you need to realize. These videos don’t even have to be made with the intention of being posted or of someone watching — that’s just an added bonus — recording and talking with the intention of ranting and preaching whatever you want to talk about for your sake is more important than anything else.
recipes
As a kid who grew up watching all the iconic shows like Cupcake Wars, Barefoot Contessa, Master Chef Junior, Chopped, Cutthroat Kitchen, and literally everything else that would play, baking and cooking are still two of my favorite hobbies to this day.
One of my summer goals for this upcoming summer is actually to learn a bunch of recipes. I love baking and cooking, and I actually find it to be one of my love languages. It’s something about wanting to share and ask my household what they think of my food after hours of labor, trying not to burn the brown butter that fills my heart with joy, especially when they actually enjoy it.
Trying new recipes is a really fun way to show some of my appreciation for those whom I have had the pleasure of sharing. I like to save recipes I really like, writing them down not only for myself, but for my mom or sisters to try. Sharing recipes is such a lost art form that I was weirdly obsessed with growing up. I was obsessed with the idea of recipe cards in the kitchen and being able to replicate them (I was born 78 years old, clearly). Sharing and passing down recipes is not only important for your family, but for your culture, so they won’t be forgotten about. Being a kid and learning how to make basic recipes that your grandmother taught your mom, or even trying to learn them on your own, is not only sharing your love and culture, but making sure it is appreciated and ensuring the next generations can do the same in the future.
Recipe cards are not only a record of what things I have made, but also a way for my loved ones to feel some sort of connection to who I was. Replicating a recipe that has been used for generations is something that you can only feel once you experience it, because having it turn out well feels like the biggest accomplishment.
Jewlery
Growing up, I noticed my mom and my grandparents have always kept some jewelry in a jewelry box hung on the wall, filled with things from their childhood, from their parents, and from important events like weddings and communions. It’s a capsule, a museum, of all of the important times in their life, from pieces gifted by those who have passed to ones that had some meaning to them at some point in time.
As I have gotten older, I have been able to accumulate my own jewelry collection of pieces I wear every day, pieces from my proms, my sweet 15, pieces I got from friends and family that I never wanted to wear for fear of tarnishing, and pieces that are a graveyard of failed friendships with half broken heart necklaces. I think it is important to look back on those times where those things were on my body every day, like when I experienced my first day of middle school or the necklace I wore every day in sophomore year of high school.
By leaving jewelry I have outgrown for my future daughter or for my niece to wear to her first homecoming dance, I’m passing down something that at one point meant everything to me. I want to share that same feeling with those who get my jewelry that I would get when wearing a piece of sentimental, older jewelry from a relative, where you can wear it, feel scared to break it, but also feel connected to them, carrying a memory.
Even just being able to keep important pieces in a sacred place is not only for the sole purpose of being able to pass it down, but also to look back on and see it as a gallery of how far I have come as a woman, reminiscing on the different stages of life — who I was then, and how I grew beyond that.
Creating, capturing, and archiving memories has become so incredibly easy and accessible with the advancements of technology, but with that comes with the consequence of future generations losing the art of physical and creative ways to remember. As someone who grew up with records, recordings, and physical copies of my childhood, my siblings’ childhood, and what my own mother looked like in the 90s, I have learned to appreciate what once was the standard: developing disposable camera pictures, having physical photo albums, and snippets of recordings from life in 2010.
Passing down your camera roll and iCloud log-in will eventually become the new norm. With the development of technology making it easy to store memories, it has been easier to accidentally delete things like your entire camera roll of 10,000 photos you’ve accumulated since middle school. So, when I get older, I want to be able to pass on my own words of wisdom, advice, favorite chocolate chip recipe, the ring I wore when I turned 16, photo albums of my teens, and scrapbooks filled with my most important life events, so I can not only look back on them myself, but also give them something to hold on to and learn from. I urge you all to dip into your creative sides and physically share with your children what sophomore year of college looked like, what graduating high school looked like, and that the soul crushing canon event they feel is crushing them will be laughable one day.