A few weeks ago, my mother sent me an image of herself from 2001. She was 22. Young and moody. She argued the last two decades have aged her unforgivingly, in body and in spirit — and have done so in the blink of an eye.
I spent a considerable amount of time staring at this picture: both in awe of the resemblance in our youth, but also in doubt that much has changed since that image was captured. She looks the same; perhaps not as much a victim to an aged face than to the accouterments of adulthood.
In a week I’ll be graduating. I’ll be 22, too — young and moody. Yet I’ve dreaded the idea of being photographed. Every smile caught on film failing to capture the indescribable but banal fear that comes with adulthood. Or rather a fear that I’ll look back to those moments in painful reminiscence.
A while ago I set out on an adventure to capture portraits of my classmates before we all depart. I gave them no instruction: Pose and do as you please. They all smiled. “Fear isn’t the right word to describe it,” my mother said over the phone. At 22 it’s an energy, a dream, however uncertain, of a life ahead. And it’s exciting.
It may be that in 20 years my classmates look upon these and — for a brief moment — reminisce on their youth; on their backpacks turned briefcases turned baby carriers; on how much they changed, and how much they didn’t.
But the hope, truly, is that for the rest of that moment we’ll find relief. That we’ll look back and realize a life once dreamed turned out to be a life well lived.
Andrew Wallace
Garrett Perezchica
Andy Chen
Hannah Drexler
Gabriel Levin
Hanako Yamasaki
Mingdao Gavaldà
Meher Bhatia/Salma Hazimeh
Samuel Straus
Ishan Ethridge
Isabelle Pappas/Rebecca Sparacio/Hugo Amador
Thanks for the memories.
Hugo Amador is a senior editor and staff writer. He can be reached at [email protected].
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