September 2025 "Photographs" by Andrea Martinez

Most people say “live in the moment”, but I like to capture my moments in pictures. When my days get bad, and I feel as if I’m losing who I am, I go through my gallery and look at all the moments that made me realize that I was alive. My heart is so full of love for all of the people in my life, and my phone is so full of memories of them laughing and living. Random pictures of food, plants, and the sky. Sunsets at the beach and sunrises at the ranch.

I have so many stories to share with each photograph. At the end of each day, I like to go through all of the ones I took throughout the day and remember what I was doing at that exact moment. I share my day with my boyfriend that way, talking his ear off through each picture.

My favorite feature about my phone is definitely the live feature on photos. I press down on the image, and a quick video plays of the few seconds before and after taking the picture. There's a blurry one of myself mid laugh, and when I press down on it, I hear and see myself laughing out loud. A picture of my sister looking towards the ocean at the beach, and when pressed on, my sister is walking towards the water as the waves crash at shore. A few seconds of life captured in one photo.

Sometimes my pictures make me cry. It’s bittersweet, scrolling through these photos of people that are no longer in my life or places that I can’t visit anymore. There's a fine line between reminiscing and being stuck in the past. But the world keeps spinning and I keep moving. I take new pictures and also revisit old ones, appreciating what once was.

My memories are stored in the pictures on my phone and so do the people and things I love.