Looking Back

I think that a lot of people think I'm crazy with a camera. They may think that I take too many pictures or that I can't seem to go anywhere without bringing my camera along for the ride. To me, taking a picture is like freezing time, a moment that you wish would last forever or stay a little longer or even a moment that you know may never happen again. We never know when something might come up, something funny, strange or just too cute!

For me, taking pictures goes beyond just clicking and saving to the computer. Instead I take these pictures and make scrapbooks. To me, scrapbooks are not just crafts. Yes you can buy stickers, paper and tools from dollar stores but those stickers, papers and embellishments all play a special part in a scrapbook page. Now you may wonder what does taking pictures and scrapbooking have to do with Diabetes but the truth is I've made a scrapbook just about my diabetes. It's always being added too and I think that it's the type of scrapbook that doesn't have an ending.

In the hospital I kept all my food menus, and my mom joked with me and said, "what you going to do scrapbook them?" Well since she knows me best, of course I scrapbooked them! I saved as much as I could, and even managed to take a couple pictures from my cell phone during the four days in the hospital. After the hospital of course the excitement didn't stop, I had pictures of taking my insulin, cooking with my diabetic cookbook, even captions from all of my blogs. I then moved on to the mud run, Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes and the George Canyon concert.

You see, you don't realize how exciting your life is until you have the time to look back on it. Think of all the accomplishments, memories and the people that come in and out of your life. With my, "Life as a Diabetic," scrapbook I have the advantage to look back years from now and remember just how it was like. Even now, I look back to the first page I did and think about just how far I've come.

I realize that scrapbooking isn't something everyone can do, or something everyone finds enjoyable but I still think the odd picture or two is so important. Writing a little blurb on the back about what happened or why you took the picture can provide you with the ability to always remember.

Looking back on previous scrapbooks I've done, friends, prom, vacations etc. I am so glad that I took the time and energy to complete them. It is a thrill to go back in time and laugh and remember things that really made you who you are today. My continuous Friends scrapbook is a good example of that. You notice that in the pictures you change just a little bit each time, some people are in all of them while others fade out but either way you know that they were apart of your life at some point in time.

With my Diabetes scrapbook I hope to show my kids, Grand kids and Great Grand kids. I think that it can teach a lesson that no matter what nothing can slow a person down. It's your own mind that slows you down not an illness or disease. It's up to you to keep positive, be ambitions and achieve your goals because nothings stopping you but yourself.

Kayla