Why I scrapbook

I think that many people view scrapbooking as an odd hobby. To document every move your child makes. To take pictures at parties and family reunions. Every seemingly insignificant event in your life alongside the most significant ones. For many, their scrapbooks are all about the art of the creation. For me, they are all about the stories behind the photos.

I recently found a quote that I think sums up my desire to scrapbook so simply. "When a person dies, a library is burned." - Edmund White

To me, that really said it all. When I am dead and gone (hopefully later rather than sooner), I want my precious son and hopefully his children and theirs, to know me. Not just have a faded picture of me stashed in a drawer somewhere with “Mom” scribbled on the back and a date… but to really know me. To know what I wanted out of life. To know what and who I loved. To even know what I didn’t like. I want my son to know that the sun rises and sets on him in my eyes. I want him to know that I loved his daddy with all my heart and soul. I want him to know that I respected and cherished my parents and my grandparents and my great grandmothers for the time I had them and missed the ones who are gone now.

I probably won’t have an estate to leave to J. I won’t have a huge bank account or a mansion sitting on rolling hills. I won’t have antique cars or precious jewels. But I can have a legacy. My scrapbooks of family photos and journaling can be my legacy. That's why I scrapbook.

Well, that and because it's fun!