When I sent my first photo to My Pop Art, I chose the Vintage style.  I had discovered the stereotypically horrible photograph of myself from high school.  You know the one…I had a perm (which made me look like a poodle on crack) and tons of “blusher.”  The expression was one of dumb disillusionment, which is about right, when I think of how I felt back then.

But I wanted to remember that person.  That person that I was.  I wanted to “vintage” it so I remembered my permed roots.  It’s an easy time to be ashamed, to hide those photos at the bottom of your pile.  But guess what?  You only get one of those bizarro phases in your life and why not memorialize it?  Why not embrace it?

I hung the photo in my hall when I got it back.  It really made me look kinda lovely, I thought.  Now when I walk by it, I remember the girl I used to be:  insecure, needy, excited, placating.  She doesn’t seem awful, though the hairdo may have been.  She seemed at the beginning of something.

I wonder if this period will look a particular way, many years from now.  Is my hairdo all wrong?  Do I look nervous and insecure or road weary and sad?  Will I look wise and centered maybe?  Forward focused and dreamy?  Who knows…but bottom line:  I was that insecure, permed girl in high school and she deserves a place somewhere on my wall and not at the bottom of a heap of photos.