A Younger You Photos To Keep Or Throw
By Brian
@wolfie34 (26771)
United Kingdom
November 23, 2007 3:00pm CST
How far back do you keep old photos of you and your family? Have you still got photos of when you were a child? When you attended school, your old school friends, your relationships, ex boyfriends and girlfriends or current?
Or do you have a purge? Go through all your old stuff and throw out old photos, diaries/journals and things that remind you of your past?
Or do you tear photos to pieces if they bring back bad memories? I.e if you relationship ended or marriaged ended in tears do you burn or get rid of the evidence?
Mum was going through my old photos today and found one of me taken with my old school class at secondary, I asked her to tear it up straight away after looking at it. School reminds me of being bullied and I hated it. I didn't want to be reminded of it.
I even asked mum to take down a picture that she had of me taken January this year when I was with my ex (my ex wasn't in the picture) but I was holding my exs cat in my arms (it was my old avatar) I couldn't bare to look at it.
So do you get rid of your old photos, do you like to keep them as memories or should they be buried with the past?
7 people like this
20 responses
@BayleighGray (4334)
• United States
25 Nov 07
Hiya Wolfie,
I have all the photos of myself when I was growing up that I know exist. My sister has a lot of them too. I think they are funny to look at. I was sort of made fun of growing up too, but I still would like to keep the pictures.
I dont keep ex's pictures out of the four relationships I have been in there was no need to keep any of those memories! I do have pictures that remind me of that time of other people and myself, but I cant part with them. And to get rid off them, well some I tore and some I burned. LOL
I havent thrown anything away that I have ever written, journals, poems, rant pages nothing. I wrote it, Im keeping it. I may not take it out and read it all the time, but I still have them somewhere.
Bay Lay Gray xx
@BayleighGray (4334)
• United States
27 Nov 07
Haha! If colorful is how you want to describe it, then colorful it is! Ive been through some things in my life Wolfie, some good, some bad but Im still standing!
Well the blush meter inched its way up when I saw that you had replied to me in my inbox! *giggles*
Bay xx
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
27 Nov 07
I don't have many old photos that bring bad memories. One of my exes was in some beaut family photos and I got some stickers of Dracula and put them on his face. It looks good and makes me giggle when I see it. He was a moron.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
24 Nov 07
Hello wolfie. I keep all of my old photos since I was young, but I am sorry and sad to say that I didn't have many old photos taken as a kid as it was at an age when cameras were an expensive luxury.
I am glad that my mom has been keeping the old photo of mine when I was only 100 days old.
But like you said, I tore all of the pitcures of my ex-girlfriend as well after I was in love with my wife because I didn't want her to know that I was still having her photos. To be frank with you, I think that I was stupid to have torn the old pictures but still unforgettable memories. It was only a past history of mine. Anyways they are gone forever and I could do nothing to them again. They are gone. My memory is still fresh without getting even older.
Thanks for your discussion reminding me of the past memories.
1 person likes this
@carol_m (709)
• Philippines
24 Nov 07
When it's a photo involving me, my family, or my friends, I usually keep it. It brings a smile reminiscing those moments with some old school friends, and just looking at how those physical appearances change over time. lol!
Pictures of my ex (together with some stuff) go straight to the trash bin the moment we parted ways.
1 person likes this
@violeta_va (4831)
• Australia
24 Nov 07
I almost never throw out photos away thats why I have almost 8000 the only photos I dont have anymore are the one of my ex boyfriends. I asked my husband to do something about his photos with ex girlfriends when we got married as most of them were with him hugging them. I have kept few photos of some ex-boyfriends but only because they were not alone on the photos and were with people that I still love and respect. I have never had a nusty break up or anything bad to say about them so I have no hard feelings about them at all.
1 person likes this
@chrislotz (8137)
• Canada
23 Nov 07
I have kept all my pictures, even the ones from my wedding, even though I'm divorced from him. He is the father of my kids, so I have kept them to give to my kids. Most of them are now in their hands, but I still have some of them because my kids are in them. My kids were already 9 and 1 when we got married. We got married because of the one year old being born. Figured with two kids it was time to get married. Didn't work though. Four years later we were in the divorce courts.
I have pictures, from my mom, of me when I was still a baby. I like to look at these pictures because I was a cute baby. lol.
1 person likes this
@visitorinvasion (7709)
• United States
25 Nov 07
To be honest, I keep most old pictures for memories.
I hear ya about the being bullied part, I don't have any pictures from Jr. High because of that, but highschool was different, by then I learned to fight back.
I have been known to clip my ex-idiot out of old prom photos, etc. Why should I not keep good pictures of me?
Bye to the idiot tho, lol.
Lemme go through my photos and see what I can dig up for this discussion...
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
25 Nov 07
I have photos when I was a baby and when I was a little girl looking after my brother. I also have photos of me growing up. I keep many of my photos because we moved from England to Vancouver and when I left home, I lived in Burnaby, then I married my husband and the photos show the changes in my life. I never had photos taken of me with boyfriends, the only one I have was of my husband.
@sojournseeker (1244)
• United States
30 Nov 07
I know you found 'best answer' but I just wanted to say since most of the photos I took or continue to take, capture a memory and there's a story there, I keep it cause new material is always useful material when you are a writer.
I gotta get my inspiration from somewhere . . .
sharing the light,
Miss Erica Hidvegi, the Enlightenment Advisor, B.A. Psych/M.A. Transpersonal Studies- Cnslng/Author, Artist, Photographer, Entrepreneur & Freelance extraordinaire
@maximax8 (31046)
• United Kingdom
30 Nov 07
My mum gave me some of my baby and childhood photos. There are some of my older cousins weddings and me wearing pretty little dresses. It is funny to look at old class photos and find myself in one of the lines. When I was 14 I went to Greece and I have some lovely photos of me enjoying my first overseas holiday. I have kept all my travel photos except the ones with an ex-boyfriend that I didn't want to be reminded of. I ripped all the photos of him up and got rid of letters and postcards that he sent me. I got married and I have kept a few wedding, honeymoon and afterwards photos. We got divorced but I wish him well and don't have any feelings against him. I keep the photos of an ex-boyfriend that I am still friends with.
@franziska (410)
• Italy
27 Nov 07
I keep carefully all my photos . I think that the past can't be buried or forgotten and I don't find a sense in tearing them up or burning them or throwing them away. So I have also photos of my exs or of friends that I don't see anymore or photos of bad periods. I'm the result of all my experiences positives and negatives and my photos must represent both.
@worldwise1 (14885)
• United States
24 Nov 07
I have always disliked being photographed, wolfie, so there are not very many pictures of me around. Several years ago I did go through old photo albums and got rid of all the pictures of me that were taken at a time when I was sick and it showed. I own one photo of myself taken when I was three because it was given to me by a favorite aunt who has passed on. I don't get rid of other old photos because it is nice to revisit the past sometimes.
1 person likes this
@jcj_111776 (3216)
• Philippines
24 Nov 07
I treasure all the photos of me and my family. The truth is, in order to organize all the photos, dating back when I was a baby, going through adolescence and school life and being an adult, I even made my own family album.
As far as I can remember, the only photo that I tore up to pieces was of my first boyfriend. Actually, I did it because the mere glimpse of his photo creeped me out. He was kind of possessive and that's the reason I broke up with him. He felt as if I belonged to him and no other man has the right to even look at me.
I like to keep hold of the old photos because it's like I'm walking down the memory lane everytime I look at them. And besides, most of those photos bring back funny memories for me.
1 person likes this
@bonbon664 (3466)
• Canada
25 Nov 07
I love old photos, I keep them all. Some of them conjure up some really nice memories. I have never gotten rid of old pictures. I like looking at them every now and again, it's amusing to see how people have changed, and hairstyles etc. I especially like to see old pics of my parents from the 30's and 40's. They are really neat to see. Every man is wearing a suit, and every person is smoking, it's amazing how times have changed.
@OURDEW (4809)
• United States
25 Nov 07
Hi wolfie, I'm sorry you have so many bad memories. I hope all your future photos remain all good memories. I have many photos, I have them from when my parents were small to when I was small all the way up until today when I took a photo of my son. I just love them and I take them and look at them often.:)
@raychill (6525)
• United States
23 Nov 07
I don't get rid of photos. I have pictures of me with ex's and things like that. They're memories and they were a part of your life at one point and I don't really see much need to get rid of all of them. But I can see how, if they were really bad memories, you would want to get rid of them for real. But I haven't had that yet. So i keep everything.
@izathewzia (5134)
• Philippines
24 Nov 07
I am a photo-keeper. I collect all pictures. I have my pictures when I was still a baby. And now, i am collecting pictures of my children since they were babies. I put it in a photo album. To keep it organize.
@yanqiyao (136)
• China
24 Nov 07
though i m 20 years old, i like to see the old pics of mine, specially those of my childhood. i loved to be taken pics then, and my mum took a lot. lots of my pics are my crying ones, but they looked fun for me now.
there's no bad memory goes along with my pics, so i can't say anything. but i think if that happened one day, i would like myself to locked it in my drawer, when a day comes i need them, i can hold them in hand.
