Written because my big brother is leaving for college tomorrow and the only picture I have of him is a silly one taken on my phone tonight.

This going to be stupid but I need to express some things through writing.

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A picture is a very important thing. When you haven't seen that person in the longest time, pulling out that picture makes you feel like you're with them again. It can make you feel like you're home, like you're wrapped up in their arms again and looking into their eyes. A picture isn't a living, breathing soul; it has no heartbeat, but its surface is a piece of paper that has painted memories onto an everlasting canvas and kept the memories frozen in time forever. 

Sometimes, even on the loneliest night when you don't think you can miss a person any more than you miss them, a picture can remind you that they miss you just as much. That they're looking at a picture of you and staring intently at it with the same ex
pression of need, desire, want and desperation.

A picture isn't just worth a thousand words. A thousand words is nothing but a short story; a story that fills you with an empty promise, and when the epilogue rolls around and fades away you're left with nothing but disappointment. Left with nothing but thoughts of, "why couldn't it be longer?" No, a picture is worth more than a thousand words. It's worth novels and novels, pages and pages. A picture can be every word in the world.

It doesn't matter which shape or form the picture takes. It could be a still-shot of two people who truly love each other, laughing along to some long-forgotten joke, a widely-smiling young girl proudly flaunting a missing tooth or a memorial of some sad memory on a cloudy day that no one remembers. Sometimes, the picture can be no more then just a silly picture of your brother on the night before he leaves for college, smiling even though everyone knows he's stressed but smiling because that's how he wants everyone to remember him.

Pictures can not only help someone remember, but can help certain people meet someone new. As desirable as it would be, no one can send you a particular memory of another. A picture is occasionally the only way memories can be shared, and the best part of it is, unlike memories, they aren't forgotten when the holder passes away. They can be passed down forever, and no one ever has to forget.

Memories are and always will be the most powerful way to remember something. You can remember something in your own way, how you felt in that moment, how everyone else around you felt. If you're lucky, you can remember the smallest details, like how you tripped and fell over your sister's foot, or how she forgot to apologize afterwards and how much it hurt when she didn't say sorry. 

Why you can't forget.

Why you won't forget.

Why you will never forget.

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Is this incredibly cheesy?

Yes.

Am I past the point of caring?

Yes.