Yesterday while visiting my folks, I opened the cupboard in my old room and found all these boxes filled with photo albums. They were mostly from the 90s and the early 2000s. These are pictures I haven't looked at much because they used to be from the in-between stage, when they were not old baby pictures or very recent ones. Now, however, most of them can be classified as "old".

Pictures from my 19th birthday, from around the time I graduated from college, when I first started working, my 23rd birthday, the first time I suffered a major illness, pictures from before I got married, wedding pictures, the early years of my marriage, more birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, just funny happy pictures from daily life. Me and my entire family in them.

So many pictures I didn't even know existed, taken from my Mom's camera or my brother's or cousin's or aunt's... but they're all there. All those moments firmly in their places, the memories of which either hit me in the face at first glance or trot along later at their own pace.

My Dad and I were going through the albums while Mom cooked dinner, and every once in a while she'd come in and say, "I want them back in the cupboard exactly the way they were," and, "Don't remove any of the pictures please." Honestly, there were a few albums there that I wanted to fling into a bonfire but my mother refused!

Some people I couldn't recognise and I'd ask Dad, some he would ask me about. Then we'd laugh out loud at all the funny pictures (mostly starring the two of us) and talk about the old days. There must have been around 30 or 40 albums and I as kept flipping through them I couldn't help thinking how pretty I used to look. And I find that funny because I have never thought that about myself. I remember that back when those pictures were taken I didn't think that way either. I guess it's all about relativity; anything looks better than what I see in the mirror these days. If only my hair and clothes from those days weren't so funny, I'd have all those pictures up on Facebook or something!

Even funnier was me thinking, "Look how thin I was!" Which is really hilarious because I wasn't thin back then. I was fat, just not as fat as I am now! Even though I was so much younger and prettier, I didn't feel too good about myself. I remember being embarassed about my weight and thinking it's the worst I'd ever looked. Little did I know... It reminded me of these lines from Baz Luhrmann's Sunscreen song -

You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you imagine.