New years has come and gone, much like every year before and every year to come. Resolutions, hangovers, family, friends, disappointment of the end of christmas and it will all happen again next year around this same time.

After years of worrying about what to do, where to go, who to spend it with and striving to be somewhere significant and with the right person at the stroke of midnight has definitely taken its toll on my new years eve need to party. This year a couple friends and I decided to shake up the norm, and see what we could make of the “best night of the year” *insert rolling eyes here* We worked at party at Science world, checking coats and wrangling the drunken crowd trying to check coats, pick up coats and find their long lost ticket stubs. We danced, and sang and laughed, toasted champagne at midnight, and then kept working until 3:30 am or so. Being completely sober and watching all the crying, puking drunkards outside made me glad that I wasn’t gonna have a killer hangover the next morning. (and trust me I’ve been known to have my fair share of killer hangovers)

On my way to pick up my friend to go to Science world, I realized with a fright that I had forgotten my camera at home and felt a sudden wave of disappointment. Oh no, with no pictures how would this night be captured, or shared, or able to be revisited in the future?? An important night with no proof!? no smiling selfies to capture? no one to see how cute we all were in our complimentary black ensembles??

Instead of turning around to go home, or relieving myself that at least my phone had a camera, I was drawn back to something my good friend josli wrote last christmas, which I had just re-read a few days ago.

“… Photos have a way of skimming off the top layer of the moment and storing it forever. You forget what was going on behind the scenes and only see the faces smiling at the camera, creating a new memory and discarding the truth. Digital cameras make it even worse. People get snap-happy and take pictures of everything, deleting the “bad” ones with the click of a button, so now all the memories are nicely cut, manicured, and stored exactly as we’d like to remember our (im)perfect lives. You can see your life the way you want to be seen, and then show it to everyone else after it’s been perfected…”

(see the full excellent piece here )

I thought, does this night only exist because of photos, well no of course not, so why the need for documentation, evidence, and proof? I felt in that moment to continue on with our night and just enjoy it, not needing to look for the camera when something awsome happens, but instead to just enjoy the awsomenss and know that no matter what, the memory is always there.

After we finished working the party we got dressed up in tiara’s and gold top hats and drove the streets of Vancouver as a gypsy cab; looking for people who for the life of them could not find a real cab, and give them a lift home for about $20. We had a new fare every 5 minuets and drove until 7am! It was by far one of the best new years I’ve ever had…I got to spend 12 hours with my buddy jrock, make money, laugh, meet new people, and help out some seriously desperate folks wandering around downtown with no way to get home.

We have not a shred of photographic evidence, but let me tell you it was excellent, and even though you can’t see our selfies in the car, or our smiling faces at coat check, or our cute outfits and model faces, it was the best way to ring in the new year and almost more special that only those lucky enough to be there know what I’m talking about.

Don’t get me wrong, I love photos, and I love taking them even more and will continue to in the future, but this little experiment helped to put it all into perspective. In josli’s post she talks about editing your photos and essentially editing your life/memories to only capture the “best” ones. I guess I just like the organic-ness of storing your memories and good times in your heart and mind instead of a 2G card and then on the internet.

But maybe its just me.

🙂

Happy new year to you and those you love.