New Year's Eve 2018
It's New Year's Eve and I am reflecting on life, like one tends to do on New Year's Eve. I spent the past two months or so converting old home movies (VHS) to a digital format so that all of us could watch them, not just those of us so blessed to have an old VCR lying around the house.
These old home movies were filmed between 1992 and 2002, but most of them were taken between 1994 and 1996, when the two oldest of my parents' grandchildren were babies (my nephew who is now 24, and my daughter who is 23). Of course, there were several more kids to come, but this is the period of time we had the old style camera. This was before digital cameras, smart-phones, and a world where everything has a video associated with it.
The sad thing is that there were some legitimately interesting videos of my siblings and me when we were younger, some of one of our brothers who passed away way too young. Of course, we didn't know then what we know now, and the video camera got picked up to tape over when a baby was doing something exciting, like possibly the first time they ate bananas.
Nonetheless, there were a lot of amazing moments captured on film.
1. I saw that my sister and I were actually pretty attentive to our little babies and while I think I thought we were pretty good when we were young, it's nice to look back now, twenty-some years later and see that we actually were headed in the right direction.
2. The kids were loved - not just by their little mommies, but by everyone in their lives. Their grandparents, aunts and uncles, and even family friends, found them fascinating. Everyone delighted in them, and it truly shows in the adults they have become.
3. My family is funny; we possibly border on hilarious. We all have a keen sense of humor, and the videos are funny because it shows that we were always this funny. It also shows times when we thought we were funnier than we actually were, but everyone has to start somewhere.
4. It's tempting to eliminate videos that include people that aren't in your life anymore on purpose. You know, those friends you've parted ways with, or ex-spouses or ex-partners that you may be embarrassed to have in a video your new spouse is watching. However, those are the days of our lives also. That person was in our life for a reason, and to not watch just because they are in it would be to miss the amazing other things that were also there. And dare I say, we're too old to let that kind of stuff bother us anymore anyways, and I think our new spouses are also.
5. There were so many times in the home movies where one or the other of us wasn't there for some reason. It was so touching to see that in those cases, our names were still brought up - I head a lot of "Say Hi to Aunt Jenni", or "Man, Jenni's gonna be sad she missed this", or "I wish Jenni was here". And it wasn't just me, it was all of us.
6. It's tempting to gloss over the boring moments. We can't take for granted that any "mundane" moment might be the last time it happens. Save the boring videos, you'll want them one day.
7. I'm sure there are more videos in the bottom of boxes, drawers, anywhere. I hope we find more!
These old home movies were filmed between 1992 and 2002, but most of them were taken between 1994 and 1996, when the two oldest of my parents' grandchildren were babies (my nephew who is now 24, and my daughter who is 23). Of course, there were several more kids to come, but this is the period of time we had the old style camera. This was before digital cameras, smart-phones, and a world where everything has a video associated with it.
The sad thing is that there were some legitimately interesting videos of my siblings and me when we were younger, some of one of our brothers who passed away way too young. Of course, we didn't know then what we know now, and the video camera got picked up to tape over when a baby was doing something exciting, like possibly the first time they ate bananas.
Nonetheless, there were a lot of amazing moments captured on film.
1. I saw that my sister and I were actually pretty attentive to our little babies and while I think I thought we were pretty good when we were young, it's nice to look back now, twenty-some years later and see that we actually were headed in the right direction.
2. The kids were loved - not just by their little mommies, but by everyone in their lives. Their grandparents, aunts and uncles, and even family friends, found them fascinating. Everyone delighted in them, and it truly shows in the adults they have become.
3. My family is funny; we possibly border on hilarious. We all have a keen sense of humor, and the videos are funny because it shows that we were always this funny. It also shows times when we thought we were funnier than we actually were, but everyone has to start somewhere.
4. It's tempting to eliminate videos that include people that aren't in your life anymore on purpose. You know, those friends you've parted ways with, or ex-spouses or ex-partners that you may be embarrassed to have in a video your new spouse is watching. However, those are the days of our lives also. That person was in our life for a reason, and to not watch just because they are in it would be to miss the amazing other things that were also there. And dare I say, we're too old to let that kind of stuff bother us anymore anyways, and I think our new spouses are also.
5. There were so many times in the home movies where one or the other of us wasn't there for some reason. It was so touching to see that in those cases, our names were still brought up - I head a lot of "Say Hi to Aunt Jenni", or "Man, Jenni's gonna be sad she missed this", or "I wish Jenni was here". And it wasn't just me, it was all of us.
6. It's tempting to gloss over the boring moments. We can't take for granted that any "mundane" moment might be the last time it happens. Save the boring videos, you'll want them one day.
7. I'm sure there are more videos in the bottom of boxes, drawers, anywhere. I hope we find more!
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