Evolution Of A Man

my mom is terrible with pictures. not so much taking them, but getting them developed. growing up, i remember there being a camera around, and even remember seeing both my parents taking pictures almost everywhere we went; but nothing ever got developed.

when we were in our late teens, my sister and i raided my mom’s bedroom closet looking for evidence that we were once little and undeniably adorable. there just had to be some pictures of us growing up. what we found was quite disturbing- bags and bags of undeveloped film! i couldn’t believe my eyes. rolls of film going as far back as 1980 and we were finding them in 1996. such a travesty!

needless to say, when we took the bags to our local developer, he laughed in our faces. “i couldn’t even develop all that if i wanted to… they’re too old,” he said! i was heated! my childhood had been reduced to a bunch of memories- most of which i could barely remember because… i was a damn baby!

while rummaging through my uncle’s stuff here in texas, i found an assload of pictures of his kids and family. i was a bit saddened thinking about how little i have to remember my own childhood. and then, i struck gold!

i’m sorry, but i was a cute fucking kid! i know people say that shit all the time, but i mean, c’mon… it really doesn’t get any cuter than that! my smile was just as on point then as it is now:

i know, i know.. you can’t take the cuteness, right? the other cute kid in the pic is my baby sis, and we’re being held by a cousin that i don’t remember. you may be wondering about that “thing” on the side of my face, lol. i was born with a pretty large mole on my left cheek. i rocked it until i was about 8, and then i could no longer take the jokes and taunts of my peers so i had it removed. some say i should have kept it (“it adds character…”), but ummm… no. i really didn’t want to have to explain a huge blotch on my face for the rest of my life. no ma’am!

this last one includes my late uncle charles. r.i.p. unc!

you know you can’t take the cuteness!