writing – John Collings

The Summer Concert Series

Growing up, I would always get excited around March when the newspaper came out with its special section that announced which bands would be coming to Red Rocks that summer. My siblings and I would look over the list and find the ones that we were most interested in going to, when tickets would be sold, and how much they would cost. We could only afford to go to two or three per summer, so we had to be choosy about which ones were the most important to us. It was a part of our summers and I was lucky enough to see some amazing shows during those summers.

Of course, the concert scene was a little different back then. We still had to go through Ticket Master, but this was long before you had to set up your computer and hope that you would get a ticker on-line before the scalpers snatched up all of the good seats. Instead, we had to set our alarms to get up early, run to one of the many Ticket Master locations, and stand in line with other eager concert goers with just the right amount of money in our pockets so when they opened the doors to the location we could get the best ticket available. It was almost as fun as going to the concert itself. We would talk with the other people in the line, ask how long they had been there, get excited about which songs the band would play, and ask if they knew anything about the opening act. It would be a couple of months before the concert even happened, and we would already getting pumped up for the event.

It became a right of passage. We would go home with our printed out ticket, and put it in a safe place until the day of the concert. My was always next to the collection of past concerts that I had gone to that I kept tied tight with a rubber band in my sock drawer. That collection was more valuable to me than any collection of football or baseball cards. Each ticket told a story about an amazing event and would bring back to that moment from a previous summer, and the shows that I had watched, what friends came with to that show, and what songs connected with me the most. The concert scene was not only fun, but it was also a culture that I bought into and is part of the reason for my love of music that I have to this day.

The concert scene has changed quite a bit back from those summer days of my youth. I do not know if it has much to do with the way that tickets are sold today, and what happens when going to a concert, or if it is more about me not having the same energy I used to have for these shows, but I do not look forward in anticipation for these shows that I used to. Yes, I still look for what shows will be happening over the summer at my favorite venues, mainly Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, and Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend, Oregon. These are also the two locations that I will be at during the summer, so that limits my options as well. I also have only a couple weeks at both locations, so I really have to hope that the bands that will be playing at those times are somebody that I really want to see. In the past, I would go to almost anybody I had a passing interest in, but that was a lot due to the cost of concerts back then. In the eighties and nineties, I could see a good band with an up-and-coming opener for somewhere between twenty to thirty dollars. That is including the fees that Ticket Master tagged on to the ticket prices. Now, those tickets have jumped up to almost one-hundred dollars, and those are for the second tier bands. When you start to look at the top tier acts, the price gets out of control. I wonder how people afford to go and see acts like Taylor Swift or Oasis because the ticket prices for acts like this have gotten completely out of control.

The ticket prices are only affordable if you jump on-line during the first few moments that those tickets go on sale as well. Where in the past, Ticket Master worked on making a system that limited what a scalper could do, it almost seems to welcome them with open arms today. Computers allow the scalpers to set up mills where they can snatch up the premium tickets as soon as they go on sale, making it really difficult for the true fans to get any tickets, even if they are able to be there when the tickets go on sale. I know systems have been set up to allow those fans to get the tickets that they want, but they are not usually through Ticket Master. This means that if a person wants to get a ticket to go see one of their favorite shows, the price for them is increased by scalpers who are now acting as a middle man and making money on a show that they do not care anything about. To add insult to this injustice, people are not even given a physical copy of the ticket, so they can have that little memento of the show that they watched. It is digital copy that will disappear off of their phone the day after the show, leaving no real record that the band wander through the town in the first place.

Even when I get to the show, the plundering of my wallet does not stop. Prices of concessions at shows has always been high, but it has reached a new level in the United States today that force people to really consider how much money they are spending at one of these shows. I went to a show just a week ago, and a beer was $15, and a single taco was $7. I have also been seeing shows in Peru, and the prices there for concessions are much more reasonable, and I was able to afford to enjoy myself more at these events. And it is not just concerts where this is happening. Movies and sporting events have also hiked their prices up, making it almost impossible for any below a certain tax bracket to go to these events. It makes it even worse if it is a whole family that is going to the event. If it can happen for certain families, it will only happen once a year if they are lucky.

For the most part, the concert scene has changed a lot over the years, and it does not look like things are going back to the way that they were any time soon. But adjustments will have to be made soon in the entertainment industry if they wish to survive in this changing economy. Movie theaters are the first to experience these growing pains. Theaters are no longer packed, not even during the summer blockbuster months. Streaming has a lot to do with that, but I also believe that the price of movies and concessions also keep a lot of people away. I would be curious to see what would happen if theaters lowered their prices, and how packed they would be if they did that.

The movie theaters are not the only places that will feel the repercussions of these prices. Eventually other forms of entertainment are going to price themselves out of the common man, and there won’t be enough wealthy people around to support musicians and athletes. It just makes me wonder when that break will happen because I cannot figure out how they have been able to sustain such high prices for so long. Until then, I will go to the shows when I can, and for those shows that I have been priced out of, I just hope some day the price will drop so I can see my favorite bands.

Welcome to Summer?

If you want to see pure exhaustion, find a teacher who has just finished a long school year. It does not matter the level that they teach, this is the moment in their busy schedule where they have plowed through the final assessments, attended all of those important milestones in their students’ lives such as graduation or promotion, and have tidied up their classrooms enough so it will look like they care about the way outsiders perceive them. The end of the year is a mad dash at the end of a long marathon, and it takes the last remnants of energy that any educator has left in their tanks. I know that when I make my way out of campus for that final time of the school year, carrying my milk crate full of my personal effects, I feel completely spent like I want to flop down on a couch looking to run the laps on television with the remote in my hand. It is about all my mind can handle at this time, but I know in my heart that it will not last for very long.

After all, it is summertime! This time of the year that I find my own choices to do with as I will, and the television will just not satisfy my craving for adventure, and intellectual stimulation. There are so many books I want to read, so many games I want to play, and so many places I want to see that I cannot let that pure exhaustion plant me in my living room. I have to get out, and see what the world has to offer. This means that I look deep within myself to find that reserve I know is down there.

Every teacher has this reserve. They pull from it constantly. It usually comes at the beginning of the day, during a hurried lunch, or right after the final bell when a troubled student stumbles into their room to look for some kind of guidance. This could be anything from help with their writing to advice about relationships to just a friendly face that they need at that exact moment. It is part of the teacher’s job to put aside what they are doing, and all of their worries and concerns, to take care of the needs of their student. And people tend to forget that it is not just one student. The stream of students can sometimes feel like it is ongoing, and at the end of the year that stream really starts to surge. Add on to this, all of the little things a teacher needs to do at the end of the year: create and grade exams, calculate final grades, and tie up any loose ends, and you have the perfect storm where that reserve well will quickly run dry.

The management of a classroom is another thing that most people do not consider when talking about the drain on teachers. I recently had a talk with a friend of mine who works outside of academia about this. He is a manager of a group of twelve people and he was telling me how exhausting it could be to make sure that all of these people are getting the work done that needs to get done. I had to chuckle a little bit because managing twelve people sounds like heaven. He did not consider that a high school teacher has at least five classrooms of people that they have to manage. I am one of the lucky ones that work internationally, so the schools I have worked at cap their classroom sizes at twenty-two students, but that is even worse in classrooms in the United States where due to budgetary concerns, classrooms have exceeded thirty students in them, and I have heard in some places up to fifty-five.

This is why summer is so important to teachers. For those who teach the early years, it is a time to participate in more grown-up activities, to return to that time in their lives where they can once again be adults, to have conversations grounded in logic and reason. For those who teach in secondary schools, it is a time for them to enjoy life free of the hormones and drama that comes with the teenage years, to have days filled with people who are motivated to do what needs to get done and they do not have to be the ones to motivate them, and to have a life free from the constant pressure that their career places on them. It is a time for the teachers to recharge their batteries and get ready to take on the challenges of the next year.

Most summers, it takes a couple of weeks to get caught up on sleep, and find that restful state that is conducive to most other people in the world. It sometimes takes three to four weeks before teachers can let go of the worries of being a teacher and relax enough to feel somewhat human. It is also around this time that teachers start to see the end of summer approaching, so they have to place up mental blocks to avoid the stress that comes with the dawn of a new school year. With that block in place, they can usually to get a place of calm by the start of the school year so they can have the patience and resolve to make it through another one. So when you see a teacher taking it easy for some time have some empathy and understand where they are coming from. It is not an easy job, and the break is a necessary evil so they can do their job well. It is an act of kindness that will go far and help to prepare the next generation of the challenges they will face in this world, hopefully making it a better place overall.

The Day’s Departing Sun

A weird thing always seems to happen during the last couple of months of a school year in the life of an international school teacher; a bittersweet moment between those who are moving on to their new lives and the ones that are staying around for another year starts to occur. It ends up being the busiest time of the year and not just because final grades are being completed and the final units are wrapping up, but because there are gathering after gathering that happens in order to say that final goodbye. But it is part of the lifestyle, this constant first impression that is brought on by the new group of teachers that will arrive the next year while maintaining a bunch of relationships with the friends that have been created over the years that have been spent with the group that you have spent a year or two with. A tickle always happens in the back of my mind every year, thinking that I will see most of these people again in random places all around the world, but after eleven years of teaching on the international scene, I have come to realize that it is only a select few that I keep in touch with in the way that I would have thought at the end of the school year.

This phenomenon is not uncommon in other industries as well as this one, but the difference comes with the fact that at the end of every year, it is guaranteed to occur in the international school community. There is another big difference as well; when this group moves on, they really move to places like Switzerland, and South Korea, and back to their hometowns in America. It is not like they are just leaving the job, but whose paths can still cross because we still live in the same town. The only way we find out about each other is in passing through social media which does not feel the same as the face to face contact.

This year, I will be saying goodbye to a lot of great colleagues that I have gotten to know over my first year in Peru. It will be sad to see them go though I have only known them for a year, but in that year, I have been able to share some great memories from them, and learn new ways of exploring the profession that I have been a part of. I also know that they had the hardest year out of any of the other people that I worked with. The ones who are departing have a different mindset than the ones who are staying behind, and for those new individuals that show up in that last year, it is hard to make strong connections with them, especially if you know that you are one of the ones leaving. The ones who have been in international teaching for a long time know that the relationship that they will make with the new group will be a short one, and they are also aware of the possibility of never seeing those people again, so it gets hard to push to build that strong relationship in the first place, especially with all of the other things that they have going on during the school year. Still, it is hard to make it through a school year when you work so closely with some people and not to make those relationships to last in the first place, so by the end of the year, they find themselves saying those hard goodbyes to the people that they believed would not have been on that list at the beginning of the year.

It doesn’t make it any easier for the ones that are staying behind. There is the friend group that is staying behind, but if there is a piece or two missing, then the friend group does not feel the same the next year. This group also has to contend with the backlash that is felt by the students as their favorite teachers move on to other exciting adventures around the world. They have to console those students the next year as they go through the remembrances of those that made the school a great place in the first place. Those teachers also have to welcome the new people in who are taking the places of maybe some of their best friends of all time, and trying to find a way not to compare them to the person who has just left. They are never going to be the same person and they will always do things a little bit differently. It is not a bad thing, but it is still change. And though an international school teacher has learned how to do deal with change, it is still never an easy thing for anyone to have to experience.

The day’s departing sun is the perfect image to capture the feelings that are going through people during this experience. On one hand, it is always beautiful to watch the sun dip below the horizon on any given night. The sky lights up in a dazzling display of colors, and we can’t help but just watch it go, knowing that it is moving on to the place where it is supposed to be. At the same time, it marks an end of a day well spent. It gives us pause to reflect back on that day and what it had to offer. Did we get the most out of that day or were there some things that were left undone or not said? If there were, then it is too late to go back and correct those mistakes because the day is now done. It is this bittersweet moment that we are running to every night to witness in the hopes that it can fix those conflicting emotions we have just by making sure we are there.

This is what the end of the year feels like for international school teacher. It is not just about getting excited for that time off to spend away from grades and with family; it is about saying goodbye to the friends we have made, and preparing for the memories made with new ones.

The Life of a Snowbird – La Quinta, California

Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by palm trees and swimming pools on a hot day? Who wouldn’t want this to happen in February, usually one of the coldest months in the Northern Hemisphere? There are many people in the northern part of the United States that ask themselves this question every year, and some of them actually do something about it. They pack up their belongings, hop on a plane or rev up the old car, and head south to warmer climes. If they live on the East Coast of the United States, they usually end up in Florida, but on the West Coast, they end up scattered all over the Southwest. One of the places that you can find a lot of them is in Coachella Valley in California.

Coachella Valley is the perfect place to escape to during the months of December, January, February, and March. Basically, the place is a desert, but during these months, it is not too hot, and it makes for each day to be a pleasant experience where hanging outside, and enjoying the stark landscape is all that you need to feel like you have escaped from the cold weather from the north. Oddly, it felt a bit warmer there from where I had just voyaged from, and that was in the southern hemisphere where they were experiencing summer. However, I was on the southern tip of South America in the Patagonia region, and even though it is summer there, it still has the ability to get quite cool there. So I was enjoying the warmer weather and it was perfect.

Even at night, it would cool off a bit, but I could still wander around the neighborhood we were staying in wearing the shorts and t-shirts designed for the summertime in other parts of the world. It was hard to believe that I was living in the heart of the winter months while I was there. I could see why many people travelled to this part of the world to get away from that cold.

It made me start to reconsider what I would usually do for vacation during those colder months of the year. I was able to start and see the benefit of being one of those snowbirds, of collecting my bags, and renting that house to occupy for a week or two. It made me feel like I was at home and on vacation at the same time, and I think that is what is at the heart of being a snowbird, having that feel of both things at the same time.

Until next time, I hope you look for those opportunities to live the life of a group that you never thought you would join before.

A Relaxing Long Weekend

Vacation is not always vacation. Sometimes it feels as if it is a little bit of a chore that you go off in order to gain more experiences in this thing called life. Because of this, you can run off to exotic locations around the world to try to see what there is to see there, and enjoy all the things that the place has to offer only to find out that when you return from it, you are more tired than when you left for vacation. It is not a bad thing because those memories are what we hold on to while we work our way through employment. But every once in a while, it is nice to go off to some place with no other plan than to sit by a pool, have a couple of drinks, and let those tight muscles unwind as you let go of the worries of the world you left behind.

Of course, Thanksgiving weekend is the perfect time to do exactly just this, especially if you live far enough away from the United States where you cannot enjoy the American traditions. I am lucky enough to work for an American company in Peru, so I still got the holiday off, and it makes it even better when the rest of the country does not. This allowed me to run off to a relaxing weekend without the holiday crowds that might be attracted there by those who also have the time off. I took off down south from Lima to a resort that was situated on the grounds of a winery, and enjoyed myself by sitting back and finding out what this out-of-the-way place had to offer.

This was to be a different kind of vacation, one where I did not go hunting for the great touristy thing to do; instead, I just looked at what the place around me had to offer and enjoyed that. There was no reason for me to leave the resort because there were a lot of fun things to do, and it was always accompanied by a glass of wine straight from the vineyard.

What fun and games that the place did not have available were accompanied by a couple boardgames that I brought with me, as well as the other games that the people I went out there with as well. If I am being honest, the weekend turned into me playing board games, and reading books by the pool. I know that does not sound very exciting, but as a teacher approaching the end of the semester, this was the type of vacation that I needed.

And if I ever felt like I was going to be bored, I could always take a stroll out in the fields. The weather was perfect for this, and at dusk, it was fun to wander through the vines, looking at the grapes, and trying to find what creatures were out there waiting for their chance to dine. I did find many birds flying about, but it was better at dusk because this was when the surprises would start to wander around.

We went out into the fields for the main purpose of finding owls that we could take pictures of. We had heard that they were out there, and it did not take us long to find a few of them. Getting a good picture of them was a little more difficult because when I got to close to them, they would screech at me and fly away. Still, I was not to be deterred, and I was able to finally get a picture that I am happy to share with you now.

There were a lot of other surprises that could be found on the grounds of the resort. Not just the views, but the old relics that they collected to add a little character to the place. There were the women placed on the front of ships to guide the sailors through their long ocean voyages, old carts that were used to carry the wine into town, and old clay pots that used to be buried under the ground used to let the wine ferment.

I was also fortunate enough to be able to make this trip with a great group of friends. It made this holiday weekend away from the United States feel like I had found a family that I could celebrate with. There was plenty of downtime, but there was also a person there ready to pick me up when I felt like having something to do. It made this little getaway resort feel like a bigger vacation than it actually was, and will be part of the reason that it will stick with me for years to come.

It is the reason that many people reserve the place for large gatherings. They create a destination event where a lot of friends can gather together to enjoy their time together. The place will organize the food, the wine, and the entertainment with you, and then after the event, all you have to do is stumble your way to your room and crash for the evening. There are also enough places on the ground where various parties can go on at the same time without having to disturb another one some place else.

It was a great way to spend the long weekend, and I look forward to finding other little places like this one in Peru where I can get away from the big city and recharge again. It will make my time out here even more enjoyable.

Moving a Dog to Peru

Meet Zoey. I have talked about her before. She is my puppers. We rescued her while living in Jordan, and though she drives me crazy from time to time, I love her to death, and would do anything for her. When I found a new job across the world in Peru, I was definitely going to take her with me, but the logistics of taking a dog from one part of the world to another is a crazy endeavor of paperwork, muscle and stress. In the end though, it is worth the effort to know that she will be with me on this new adventure in a new country.

Let’s get one thing straight, Zoey has a pretty easy life even though she might tell you differently. She was picked up on the side of the road in the dessert on the way to the Dead Sea from Amman. Afterwards, she was given a home where she had all the toys she could want, never had to hunt for her food, or look for a fluffy place to rest her head when she was tired. Despite all this, she has still only know a dessert world where there are few trees, hot sun beating down, and a city landscape. Going across the world has been an eye-opening experience for her. For the first time in her life, she has seen big bodies of water, squirrels, horses, and deer, and trees so numerous that they cover a whole area that the humans call forests.

All of these new experiences have been a little stressful for her. She does not always know what to make of them, and as soon as she starts to feel comfortable in a place, we uproot and get her on the move again. You see, we couldn’t make a direct flight from Jordan to Peru. We had about a month lay-over in the United States, and to get her into this country was a little bit of a challenge. The United States currently has ban on dogs coming from Jordan because of a couple of cases of rabies a few years back. Basically it takes about six months to collect all the paperwork necessary to fly a dog into the United States from Jordan, and then you have to schedule an appointment with the CDC to get another health check before they officially allow the dog into the country.

Airlines are also fun to work with. They each have their own requirements and weight allowance. It requires just as much wrangling to get a dog into the cargo hold and even then, it is not always a given they will get to go. They will have to be there during a certain time of the year because they will not allow the dog to fly if it is too hot or too cold outside. In each case, it might cause the dog severe discomfort while sitting on the tarmac because they will not be able to turn on the climate control until they are up in the air. Luckily this was never a problem for us as we found the perfect time to get her into the plane, and the plane into the air.

We tried to limit the amount of time that Zoey had to spend in the air, and we definitely wanted to limit the amount of layovers that she might have to endure. The best way to do this was to fly in and out of L.A. even though she would be staying in Oregon the whole time she was in the United States. In order to make this happen, we had to take the long drive between the two states twice. It wasn’t ideal, but it was easier for Zoey to understand what was going on rather than having her trapped in a dark tiny crate for many long hours without us being able to explain why she was in it.

It also gave us the added bonus of being able to see a little more of the United States on a road trip. It has been a long time since I have been on an American road trip, and I enjoy the feel of the open road. This is not necessarily the same for a dog who has to find themselves cramped in the back seat with a collection of all of our stuff that we are bringing with us to Lima on our move there. Still, I was amazed at well Zoey did on the trip. She chilled out in the back seat and got up to watch the scenery as it passed by. It helped that we did the drive through California which offers a lot to look at.

But after a couple of nights in hotels that we fancier than what we usually stayed in because we wanted to make sure that there was enough space for Zoey, it was tine to pack everything up and head to the airport. That final jump over to our new life was exciting for us, but trying to explain to Zoey how much she would love the new experience was still difficult for us to do. I always wondered what was going through her mind at this moment. Did she think that she was heading back to Jordan to her home, or was she still confused as to what actually was going on?

Whatever she was thinking, the reality is she eventually got on that flight, and made it all the way to her new life in Peru. It was stressful for her and us, and there was quite an adventure along the way, but we are safe and sound now. She has taken the last week exploring her new surroundings and getting comfortable as so have we. I can’t wait to see where it leads all of us, and I am sure that Zoey agrees.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to keeping you updated with our new adventure.

Enchanted Grounds – Littleton’s Board Game Cafe

In an old strip mall that has a bunch of dying shops that I have driven by numerous times during my fifty years of stomping around Littleton, there is a shop that has opened in the last ten years called Enchanted Grounds. I have known about it, but its non-descript sign and the closed blinds made me think that it was a dump that was biding its time until it would close down and another business would take its place. This was until I needed to find a place to finish up my Dungeons and Dragons campaign and somebody suggested that I check out this place. So I took a walk down the street to see if it would be a great place to finish up the campaign.

What I found there was one of those places that I had been looking for ever since I have gotten back into the board game hobby. It was a cozy little cafe with large tables where you could set up games for up to ten people if needed. There were plenty of tables too and when I asked if I would need a reservation for a table, they chuckled and said that this was not usually necessary. They also sold a fair amount of good games, books for various role playing games, miniatures for these games as well as the paint to make them your own.

What made it perfect was the coffee and small bites served by a delightful staff. I wouldn’t want to indulge in these during the nighttime, but during the day, it was the perfect way to jumpstart me on my way. There were many people there that were enjoying a coffee drink while playing a game, browsing for a new one, or just hanging out with their friends. It just showed me that I shouldn’t judge a place by its outside because when I walked inside, I instantly fell in love with the place. It will be a long time before I am able to make my way back there, but it is nice to know that it is there and has a big enough clientele that they will still be in business by the time I make my way back to the United States to enjoy it again.

The Start of the Last Hurrah – Jordan

I have known for quite some time now that this would be my last year in Jordan, and though I have taken some of the necessary steps to move on to my next adventure, it really has not hit me yet that I will be moving on. It was not until a couple of friends came into town that I started to realize that my time in the country was starting to become limited, and as I showed them around to some of my favorite spots, I started to realize that this was the beginning of my last hurrah tour of the country I have lived in for the last four years.

Of course, some of this last tour took me to the major sights of the country. I had to take them to the Roman ruins in Jerash, and the marvels of the buildings carved into the sides of mountains in Petra. I have been to both of these places on numerous occassions, but it felt a little different this time around because I knew that it would be the last time I would be seeing them. It wasn’t like the wonder I had felt during the first time I had witnessed these places, but a meloncholy kind of sadness that went along with the fact that I could no longer take these places for granted just because they would soon no longer be right in my backyard.

When I do visit them now, I see them with a fresh set of eyes, looking for those details that I missed the other times I have been here. It helps that I am going to these places with people who have not been before because they spend their time marveling at all of the things that I have already witnessed. They point and gawk and tell me about how fascinating it all is. I have to play tour guide a bit, telling the little nuggets of information that I can glean from what I have heard the previous times I have been here.

And then there are the new things that I missed the first time around, or the way that life will make some unpredictable changes to add a new flavor to something old. It is the donkey standing in the perfect place so I can take the perfect picture. It is the kids placing their stuffed animals in the carved alcoves of the cliffs so they can take pictures of them as if they are a part of the landscape. It is the people dotting the cracked earth on their way to the salt flats of the Dead Sea. These are the things that I didn’t notice the other times I had visited these place, but they seemed more important now.

I am noticing the country again just like I had when I first arrived, but it is different this time around. I am not looking on the sights with awe and wonder because I already know the stories behind them. Now, I look upon them like an enjoyable book whose pages are running out, and already know how it is going to end. I am still enjoying the experience, but soon I am going to have to close that book and place it on my shelf to remember the story I once enjoyed.

But as every reader knows, there are many great books out there. All you have to do is to look over the horizon to find that next great story. I may be leaving Jordan behind, but I do have that next great adventure just around the corner. I have really enjoyed my time out here, and I am glad that I am getting the opportunity to have my last hurrah before I go, but I am also excited for the next stop in my life.

I want to thank those people that made me go and take this last tour of Jordan before I left, but I also want to thank Jordan for four great years with the ability to experience a part of the world that not many people get to see. I will miss you when I am gone, but I will still enjoy those last pages before I leave.

The Last 100 Days

It started off with a simple picture. I took it while walking to my classroom one morning. It was of the little garden I pass by every morning on the side of the school, something that I would usually take for granted, but today I actually paid attention to it. The reason being that I only had 100 days left in Jordan, and I had never taken a picture of it before. I do remember the first time I saw this walkway and the way that I thought that it was a nice addition to any school, and it added to the aesthetics. After a awhile, I took it for granted and then eventually did not even pay attention it anymore. But on that day, I decided I wanted to take a picture so I could remember it.

This made me start to realize that there were many little corners of Jordan that I have enjoyed, but I don’t have pictures of. Considering that I took the first picture on a day where there was only 100 days left, it was the perfect time to start taking a single picture every day and to share it on Facebook, so I could collect those small little corners that have become a part of collective memory. Facebook would remind me of them years later, and I could reminisce of my time spent in this country.

At least that was the idea, but something strange happened along the way. People started talking to me about the project. I’ll be honest. This was more for me than it was for people to pay attention, but they started to get excited about the picture I would bring them everyday. It was something simple to share with the world, something that did not have political implications behind it, something that wasn’t about showing off to a crowd of people about how great of a life I can pretend to have. Instead, it was just a simple picture that was shared with people, a snapshot of what life was actually about, sometimes simple, and sometimes something that was more exciting, in other words, the way that life is lived.

At first I couldn’t figure out why these pictures connected so much with people, but then they told me what was that they liked about them. The pictures returned them back to a time when things were simpler, and social media was not a way push our political views, or pretend we were part of a television show that we thought everybody should watch. It was just a way to share our lives with the people we find important. It took away the vitriol and FOMO and made it about the simplicity of life.

I am not going to say that these things have not disappeared from social media, but it has been nice to add something that is different to the sights. It makes me wonder that if more people would return to these kinds of posts that we can retrain the algorithm to go back to that time where social media is something that you are excited to look at and not something that brings us grief. I know it started off as just a project to take pictures for one hundred days, but now that I am half way through the experiment, I am glad to discover that it was actually something a little more.

Tag: writing