Preserving our memories in Scrapbooks or Photo Albums

As time goes on, even our most vivid memories can fade. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but so often those pictures are snapped and never looked at again. In this day and age where technology helps us capture our favorite moments, it is easy to rely too much on it. How many people, myself included, have hundreds or even thousands of pictures saved on our phones? And how many of us, again I include myself in this, have boxes of mementos and keepsakes that all belong to a special day, a fantastic moment in our lives?

From the many moves I've made throughout my life, I always notice that there are boxes of photos and ticket stubs, post cards, wedding invitations and the like that I have kept over the years. And every time I move, I end up sitting for hours looking through these boxes, reminiscing. I realize that I haven't opened that box since my last move.  And that makes me sad.

The beauty of a leather scrapbook or a photo album is that you can combine all of your old pictures and keepsakes in one location. And what's even better? They are easier to access! You can pull out the book with the photos and mementos from your trip to Italy when your friends come over, or if you're just feeling nostalgic.  

Another of my favorite aspects of memory saving is the ability to include journaling in my scrapbooks or photo albums. My bad memory makes it so that sometimes, no matter how many pictures or items I include from a certain day, I will probably eventually forget the exact events, or the funny thing that happened that has no item to memorialize it. Most of my scrapbook pages include short journal entries about the day, a quick sentence about the beautiful butterfly that landed on my shoulder at the top of the mountain, or even a joke that was told. Even some of my most simple photo albums have my handwritten pages placed in the photo sleeves near their photographic counterparts. These extra entries round out the ability of that book to transport me back to that exact day, sometimes that exact minute, and relive it all over again. And that is absolutely invaluable.