Back in the day...

I recently did a photo shoot for a very dear friend that I hadn't seen in years. After almost 15 years we connected on facebook. Gotta love that facebook thing.

Said friend was coming to Calgary to play at a venue in the south, bringing his band, brother, and his girlfriend was coming down as well. This friend was someone I had always cared about and respected from the day we met.

I met up with his band and friends that night and when I saw him for the first time after so long, it was like falling down the rabbit hole and the blur of the last 20+ years fell away and we were 19 and 21 again.  I had a great time meeting his brother and the band. His new girlfriend is beautiful, very friendly, and has a great sense of humor. I liked her immediately. I know he had been doing things he didn't want to do for the last while, but I was really glad to see him up on stage. He's a born performer and I was sad to hear he hadn't been singing for quite some time.

I captured some great moments and brought them back to my studio to process. Looking at the images, I felt myself fall into the screen and end up in the old haunts and stages of back then once more. We had some laughs back in the day.

Driving around town in a beat up old car, singing harmonies to the radio. It's funny how one little moment can trigger a waterfall of memories that were always there but not really at the surface everyday. I love these little gems that seem to pop up when you're not expecting it. It's a happy, pleasant memory that I'll keep tucked away and drag it out again if things ever get tough. That's what they're for, the good times. For when you've stretched yourself as far a you can be stretched, at the point where you think you'll just snap if one more inch passes, and with a happy little thought, you become rubber man.

Eventually, I finished the edit and burned the disc. I am mailing it out tomorrow and I know he'll get a laugh or two from it. I'm sure we'll get together again and get caught up and up to date on whatever we missed in each other's stories.

I don't regret a single moment in my life, it's all been an amazing learning curve. Each and every smile, grimace, goofy move, bad decision, scary moment, and all the tears and laughter, make us who we are at this moment in time. I'm happy to be alive, breathing, and laughing everyday, and I hope you are too!

Don't forget to check your Compass!
Cole