My great grandfather — my namesake — and I supposedly share a sense of humor. I grew up on stories of it.
My favorite tale is about an infamous game where he’d put your hand underneath a bungee cord and incrementally let it rip from higher and higher up until you couldn’t take it anymore. Needless to say, this is a game with no winners, only those that lose less.
I love these stories and, growing up, I’d repeatedly ask my dad and grandma for another one.
He died before I was born and the ephemeral stories of him only go so far. I don’t feel like I truly know him, just a mythicized version of him. It’s made me conscious of how I will be remembered.
This is why I’ve started turning on the audio recording software on my phone and recording some of the sounds of my life: family dinners when my grandparents are over, concerts, conversations with friends, etc.
Of course, you can also turn on your video-camera, but I think people act differently when a camera is present. With audio recording on your phone, you can set it and forget it.
These recordings might not be something I listen to for a while, but down the line it will allow me to travel back in time and experience an unfiltered past.
I love the friends and the relationships I have forged throughout my time on The Bluff and I am sad that soon, we will be scattered to different parts of the country.
The times of playing video games with my housemates until 4 a.m., walking into my friends houses unannounced, random run-ins in the quad, drunkenly walking to parties, are quickly becoming less frequent.
I don’t want fleeting memories and photographs to be all I have to remember of this time. So if you’re feeling nostalgic in a world that feels to be moving ever-faster, I encourage you to start recording the sounds of your life.
William Seekamp is News and Managing Editor for The Beacon. He can be reached at seekamp22@up.edu.
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