The power of one (1) photograph

Sometimes we have the one photograph that, every time you happen to come across it, takes you right back to a specific moment. A moment that would impact your life, even if only for a little while. I happened to stumble across this one again, while trying to find an old photograph of a cousin.

This photo was taken about 2 minutes before I met a guy who would be the cause of my first heart break. Heart-wrenching, debilitating heart break. The kind you experience when you're still young enough to be ignorant of the sadness that love can bring so that you love fully with no walls and just unconsciously let go. Of course I can look at it now and appreciate the memory, as painful as it was at the time. I was 19, on a gap year, and out celebrating "fasching" with my family (my aunt is in the picture with me). It's a picture that takes me back to when I was still so young, slowly growing up and coming into my own. I've sat in that same spot many times as the years have passed. The Cafe Gust in Lichtenberg, Linz, Austria. And each time, I go back to that memory. I go back to it with fondness, a sense of humour and a little nostalgia for those care free days and I laugh at how heart broken I was.

This picture, for me, says a thousand words. Funny isn't it.. how some people will look at something and not know what it can mean to someone else. All these hidden little memories and experiences we have. The small pieces that come together to create who we are. The small things that add up.. what we see when we look back into the past and collectively call "our life".