Documenting My Entire Life
In 2013, I saw a video that quite literally changed the course of the next decade of my life. It was a TED Talk by Cesar Kuriyama, in which he described a video project he called “one second every day.” The project was simple, and its purpose clear—he would record a short snippet of his life every single day, so that he wouldn’t forget all the little things that were meaningful to him.
That day, in 2013, I recorded my first one second video (a short clip of his TED talk), and 8 years later, I haven’t stopped. To me, this project is a sort of video journal that helps me preserve memories, think about what’s important, and just document my daily life. Every day, I use my phone (occasionally, I’ll use a GoPro, if I’m doing something particularly adventurous) to take a short video of anything that’s happening. Sometimes, the short video is capturing a huge moment of my life, like the time I recorded a short video of my wife walking down the aisle at our wedding, or the day I graduated college (and high school), or the day we adopted a puppy.
Recording a quick video while my wife, Macy, walked down the aisle. Those who know me knew exactly what I was doing, and after a quick clip, I put the phone away to enjoy the rest of the moment.
But a lot of times, I record something really mundane (let’s face it, a lot of days are pretty uneventful), but I still like having those memories, because it reminds me of what life was like in that season. I’ve recorded every day of my life since I was in high school; that means I’ve captured the entirety of my college life, getting my first apartment (and house), starting and ending multiple jobs, and living with different roommates, and eventually my wife and dog. Over the past 8 years, my life has included many, many different seasons. Instead of all of those memories blurring together, I can rewatch any year, and experience a real, colorful memory of what my life was like at that time—not just the big events, but the normal, everyday stuff that, without this project, I probably wouldn’t ever think about again. Having all those little moments, not just the photo-worthy big stuff, is what makes this project so good at taking me back in time, to remember what everything was really like
I’m so happy I started this project. It has changed my life, and helped me remember a lot more of it. And I just know, when I’m 40 years older, I’ll love looking back at some of those foggy memories and transporting myself back to different years on my life’s timeline. I’d encourage you to watch Cesar’s TED Talk, and try recording a month of your life, to see what you learn. Will you find yourself finding a new appreciation for the mundane? Maybe afterward, you’ll look back on the past few weeks and think “oh yeah, I forgot I did that!” (now just imagine looking back a decade!)
Try it for yourself, and see what happens. You might just find a new love for memory preservation and life documentation. And if you’re curious about my life, feel free to watch some of here.
