Twenty.Three.

"A picture speaks a thousand words."

*sighs*

Ever meet a person who lives by that? I have. Many times over. And in my opinion, they're the most depressing people ever. They're the people who after a relationship has long crashed and burned, hit up their ex (or exes) for pictures hot enough to cause their phone to shortcircuit. Or that friend who has photos in his/her room that dwells on what they deem to be "the good times"...the ONLY good times in their lives. That family member that always pulls out some embarassing wallet of you, going on and on about how they wish you had stayed that way, how you were 'so cute' back then.

*YAWN!*

And try to tell those people to get over themselves and they will at some point or another make it known that they're social rejects who can't accept the fact that time goes on. Life comes and goes. They will insist that pictures last a lifetime, when in fact, the concrete places and individuals that make the pictures special, are going on with their existence. And the clock keeps ticking. Then those same people wake up one day and say, "Where did the time go?"

I'm a fan of the real thing. I love when I first experience something. I love when we are friends, a couple, or kids. But I also know it'll come and pass. And there's no changing that. True, the real thing may be temporary, but that's why it's precious in the first place. Pictures exist so we can look back on the good times, the good people, the good places. Not so we can try to swim backwards in a sea that keeps rushing forward.

Pictures may be worth a thousand words...but the moments that make them are worth an eternity.