Going through old photos, I came across this assignment from a college photography class. We were tasked with taking a self portrait.

This was mine.

Looking at it now, I wonder what it says about me. Or, at least, the me that took it. Goodness knows, I’m not the same person I was when I was 22. (At least, I hope I’m not.)

Ideally, we’re all different people at different times in our lives. Experience forces us to grow and change.

So, I wonder now, what that Sarah was saying with this photograph. Hiding most of my face behind a book? A hat when I rarely wore hats? Was I saying that I prefer to be overlooked? That I want to blend in, camouflage as much as myself as possible?

Or maybe it was as simple as: I like reading and I wish I wore hats more often.

I think the latter is probably true.

But then I wonder… how would I craft a self-portrait nowadays? Back then I was a student. Single. My main interest was Harry Potter.

Nowadays: A librarian. Married. A total comic nerd.

A lot has changed. And isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t it amazing that we can look back at how we pictured ourselves and realize that the person we see is, maybe not a stranger, but a caricature of who we are now.

We are all works-in-progress. From age 9 to 99.

And that might be the very best thing about us. We are always characters-in-development–and we never know where our stories are going to go.

Let’s keep turning those pages.