Why I Think Scrapbooking is an Essential Hobby for Women

I don't even remember exactly when it was that I started journaling. I think I was in junior high school at the time. I do know this: I had a habit of destroying my diaries after they had been written. When I would re-read them later I would get annoyed at myself for having been such an idiot, and then I would rip the pages to shreds in embarrassment. For that reason I do not have any of my earliest diaries.

When I read through the remaining old diaries, I sometimes smile, sometimes laugh, sometimes cry and sometimes feel that familiar annoyance at myself because I was such an idiot. That has not changed. Nowadays though I experience something even worse: I occasionally come across accounts of people and events that I do not remember at all.

They are obviously things that happened to me, considering that the diary is mine and the handwriting is mine, and the story was written using language I would have used at that time. I did not have a habit of making things up to write about in my diary, even though it sort of feels like I did now that I cannot remember some of the incidents that I wrote about.

You might be tempted to say, "That's just Amy- she must have a bad memory. She's probably pretty forgetful." Well, considering that I was a magna cum laude college graduate, I don't think my memory is all that bad. I do forget things- true- now that you mention it, I can't remember what I had for breakfast last Tuesday. (Can you remember what you had for breakfast last Tuesday? Just wondering.)

In any case, I do not believe that my memory is any better, or any worse than anyone else's...the only difference is, I am confronted with the evidence of my memory's shortcomings every time I open my diaries, whereas most other people don't have such extensive reminders of exactly how much they forget.

I started taking photos when I was in high school. When I was in college, I started assembling the pictures in photo albums. My earliest pages have photos and nothing else. Somewhere along the line I started adding other elements into my photo albums- ticket stubs, reviews of movies I had been to see, hangtags from my favorite outfits.

I also began incorporating journaling into my scrapbook pages. My scrapbook journaling, at the time, was usually done with a permanent marker on top of magnetic photo pages- or, occasionally, with words and letters cut out from the various magazines and catalogs I used to read. If there was even a "scrapbooking industry" at the time, like there is now, I had no idea of its existence.

When I read through my old photo albums I have found that I remember everything preserved in them- the clothing, the people, the events, and even the moments that seemed to me like mundane everyday moments at the time the photos were taken. No matter how insignificant those moments seemed at the time, I realize now that they were not. So many things have changed since then, in ways that I could not have imagined.

I cherish my photos of my sister curled up with our family dog. Who would have guessed, then, that our beloved dog would not live forever and that there would be a time when my sister and I would move far away from each other and grow apart? Those thoughts did not even enter my 19-year-old mind when I carelessly snapped the photos. Now I am wishing I had snapped even more of them. These scrapbook pages revive my memories and bring them to life.

Which leads me to the part about why I think scrapbooking is an essential hobby for women. Do you know what your life will be like a few years from now? How much change will you encounter? What losses will you incur? The truth is, you don't know the answers to any of these questions. Life is uncertain.

The old cliché, "You don't know what you've got until it's gone"- well, there's a lot of truth in those words, isn't there? Your life is precious. Your time is precious. There are things you take for granted now, that you should not take for granted. Value them. Preserve them. Make an effort to remember them.

A few years ago, I took a trip to New York City. Right before my trip, a co-worker mentioned to me that on his last trip to New York he had wanted to get a picture of the World Trade Center, but had run out of time. His wife told him, "Don't worry honey we'll go back next time". I think we all know now that sometimes there is no "next time".

What do you value now? What do you want to remember? Will you remember all the precious details of your life- the things you love to do, the places you love to go, the quirks of the people you spend time with? If you're tempted to think, "I will always remember"- you are lying to yourself. You will probably not remember. Not unless you make an effort to remember.

You can't keep things from changing, and you can't make time stand still, but at least you can capture precious glimpses of your life in your scrapbook pages. Scrapbooking is an easy way of connecting yourself to your memories, your history, your loved ones and your life's journey.

It is the combination of photos and journaling that will help to trigger your memories when you read through the pages of your scrapbook. If you get into the habit of simply taking pictures, putting them in an album and then noting the most basic information about each photo- the "who, what, where and why", it will go a long way towards ensuring that you remember the important details of the journey that has been your life.