Photos and Memories

I discovered this while doing something quite mundane. Ok, here's the background:

UBC's Housing website has this option to let me upload my photo, for any of my roommates to see. Well, I don't have one, but I thought I'd just upload a photo just for fun. Turns out, they have a criteria - 200KB max size, and must have passport photo dimensions. I decided to browse through my Picasa collection to see whether I had one...

I started scrolling downards, from 2006 to 2005 to 2004... I realized that the events which give me the most number of memories were those events that I had the most number of photos. Doing a quick count...

• Bowen Island trip - 2006 - 328 photos, but only a handful taken by me.
• HCJC Astronomy Workshop for Primary Schools - 2004 - 64 photos, hardly any taken by me, but I organized the event.
• Track and Field Meet - 2003 - 165 photos, all taken by me.
• ChemComm 03 - 2003 - 82+101+7+5+18+5+2+83+33 photos, taken by the whole team.
• 4B Teacher's Day Performance - 2003 - 122 photos, taken by me and others in the class.
  
• CNY Photography Competition - 2003 - 54 photos, all taken by me.
• Duck Race CIP - 2002 - 99 photos, all taken by me.

These events I have the strongest and fondest memories for. Perhaps it's because I had an important stake in them too - Track and Field was my life in Sec 2 thru to 4, for I had asked for the role of training up the basics of the juniors on the team. ChemComm 03 was the competition not just that I earned best speaker, but it was also the year I mastered the pronunciation of "metaphenyline diamine and isopthaloyl chloride to form polymetaphenylineisopthale amide" (heck, I don't even know the spelling anymore...). Duck Race, I was heavliy invovled with the Throwers. HCJC Astro Camp, I organized it with Jonny and Jerlene. Teacher's Day, I helpd Lee lead some parts for the singing, and got really involved in it. Good memories.

Then there are stuff I can't really remember. Graduation. Sec 4 Prom (which thoroughly convinced me never to go for any more proms). Founders Day. Science Summer School (I lost all the photos in J2... except for Yiwen's ones). Music Of The Night. 7B stuff. I just didn't have an inspired role in those events. Blame it on me being the cynic. Or is it that I didn't have enough photos?

Perhaps I'm a person rooted in visual memory. Photos are important to me, just as long as I'm not in them. Yes, that's me - photophobic visual person.