Recently, I spent the day with my grandma going through old photo albums of my mom. A lot of the photos were of her high school dances. Like Prom, Halloween, and Homecoming. 

But what I found so weird, was that even though the poses and outfits were cheesy, and the camera quality wasn’t great, I thought they looked better than mine. 

Everyone looks so excited to strike a pose. Something about the picture makes it look like they are all having the time of their lives. 

I put it next to my own dance pictures. Everyone is standing straight and rigid, with strained smiles. The picture basically makes it look like we all had a terrible time. When in reality, we actually had a super fun night. 

Maybe it’s the appeal of nostalgia. Making me wish I could experience the fantastical nineties I see so often in movies and from the stories I hear my parents tell. Making it seem like high school in the nineties was full of wild adventurous romps. 

It’s as if nobody had any real problems. Everyone was living their fullest lives, with not a care in the world. 

Of course I know that isn’t true, but it’s something about this old picture that makes all of the fantasies seem real. Maybe it’s because it’s an actual photograph in a photo album. Maybe because it’s labeled with the date. Or maybe it’s because of the fuzziness of the picture, creating a feeling of this blur that covers the whole idea of the decade. As well as the high school life of my parents. Blurring out the parts we don’t want to focus on. 

But I know even if I got my own photos printed out, labeled them with the date, or put a filter on them to make them look older; I still wouldn’t think they looked as good, or had as much value as my mom’s do. Because every time I look at the pictures I focus on reality and can’t see the fantasy.