Is It Wrong to Keep Photos of Your Ex?

Today on the radio there were having a conversation about keeping photos of your ex. Is it right or is it wrong? There were so many opinions about this and personally I think it’s wrong.

I use to date this guy who kept albums of all of his ex-girlfriends. In fact I think about a year into the relationship; he actually sat me down and showed me all of these albums. I thought it was very weird and honestly couldn’t figure it out. I sat through roughly 2 hours of him describing each and every detail of past girlfriends; where the pictures were taken and what significance this played in his life. At first I thought “Wow, this guy is open and honest and sharing all of his past experiences with me.” I continued to sit there and listen to him as he went on about each and every one. I thought, ok he has nothing else to hide and we should be good.

Then we moved in together as all young couples do. As we were moving boxes of his stuff into my place, I noticed one labeled ‘Photos’. I thought to myself “I wonder if he’s bringing the photo albums of his ex’s into our place?” I kept a pretty close eye on that box and when it was time to start unpacking, I headed for that one first. Low and behold all of those albums were there and not only did he want them unpacked he wanted them on display for ‘easy access’. I thought, “Easy access for what?”

As time went on and we continued to ‘share our lives together’, I thought great, the first thing to go will be those photo albums. But no, if anything he actually started to document our relationship more and more and loved having it in photo albums. Then he started an album just with pictures of me. Honestly, this was starting to sound like a horror movie right? This is when I started to really wonder if this was just me that found it weird OR was I making a big deal out of nothing.

At this time we were having problems in our relationship and I could see it falling apart at the seams. I was trying to work things out and here he was taking more and more pictures of me and putting them into an album. I honestly never thought too much of it until a friend of mine had mentioned that he (the b/f) thought we were on our last legs and that he was taking as many pictures of me as he could to remember me by.

As I thought about this more and more, I realized that those photo albums didn’t just represent a time in his life but that he was using them as some kind of trophy. Once I discovered this as it got closer and closer to our break up I started to collect all the pictures of me. Yes, I know this sounds odd, but I didn’t want to be sitting in a photo album like another conquest. Never mind having his new flame have to sit through an additional hour of him describing ‘all about me’. So when we broke up I took every picture of me out of the house, I even took the negatives…I am NOT going to be a part of a trophy collection…hence the reason I disagree with keeping a photo of an ex.

If you're wondering if I ever kept any pictures of him...I've attached one for your viewing pleasure. 

The 80's Are Alive!

On my way to my mom’s place tonight, I passed my old Junior High School. I was a student there in the 80’s and loved every minute of it…well except the hairstyles and fashion. I thought to myself, wow we were idiots for thinking that our hair teased as high as possible and the gaudy neon clothes we had to wear actually made us look good. Yuck! What were we thinking?

No sooner did I say that to myself and I turned the corner to none other than a group of kids; dressed head to toe in neon shirts, hats and pants were standing there. I marveled at how the 80’s fashion has come back with a vengeance. I smiled a little to myself as I realized those kids are more than likely going to have the same ‘Ah-ha’ moment I had just had.

I turned up my radio to try and drown out the memories of my pink spandex cycling shorts; then I realized that it was on none other than the 80’s station…I think Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ was playing. If that wasn’t bad enough I passed a guy who had a HUGE mullet, I mean this trip down memory lane was going a little to the extreme.

Just when I thought it was over and I was safely in the confines of a grocery store, where there couldn’t possibly be any way the 80’s could revive themselves…I walked down the pop & chip aisle. Then there they were, on the shelf, so close together…if they could’ve they would’ve been holding hands. I mean seriously!

The ‘New’ bag of taco flavoured Doritos; the company not only brought back the flavour but they went so far as to package them the exact same way they had when they first came out…in the 80’s. Then sitting on the same shelf with a sign that said ‘Take a Walk down Memory Lane’; was a case of Pepsi…not just any regular old Pepsi, but Pepsi ‘Retro’. Again the company had decided to put their old logo on the cans; pretty much from the same era of the 80’s.

It honestly was a little cool, I had to admit. I kind of felt like a kid again, I remember shopping with my mom and buying both of these items in the exact same packages. I don’t know why it was so important for the universe to transport me back to the 80’s but it kind of was TOTALLY RAD MAN!