Old Silver has been watching me with her big eye for as long as I can remember. She catches my movements with a soft click. She kept my voice locked up inside for 15 years. Old Silver watched me become unrecognizable to her knowing eye in my absence from her.
Old Silver sits idly as I view my life through her. She overlooks as I see a one-year-old version of myself dancing through projected designs on the floor in Disney World. She shutters with the stomps of my feet next to my brother. She remembers the faces of the people around me whom I danced around. She holds my hand as I watch myself spin around until I fall.
Old Silver captured my idolization of my cousin. She replays me wanting to be like my cousin so much that I wanted blue hair to match her dyed strands for volleyball. Old Silver watched my cousin become the person I would forever look up to. My laughter is her favorite sound as she captures it in motion and stills. Now, she looks at my cousin’s daughter when I am with her, hoping that I can become a little girl’s idol as well.
Old Silver sat with my mother for years of my life. They were best friends. My mother kept her memories with Old Silver at the touch of her fingertips.
Then, Old Silver became my best friend.
Old Silver temporarily wrapped exotic animals in her seemingly endless memory. That is how she became my best friend. She loved seeing the world through my eyes. We walked through the zoo, unknowing of how our futures would intertwine.
Old Silver and I reunited a few summers ago; she saw my face for the first time in years. It felt right to spend my time with her. She met my friends. We passed her between us, capturing the essence of each other with Old Silver’s eye.
Now, Old Silver knows my life well. She smiles when her big eye latches onto those she has seen before. She lights up in front of my face. She doesn’t like the snow, but still accompanies me on countless ski trips. She meets new people every time I pick her up. She sits in confusion at the faces of those who sit in her memory from one occasion, but she has never seen since.
Old Silver has captured my whole life in fragments.
Old Silver allows me to look at my past at the click of a button and a change of an SD card.
Old Silver waits to see what the future of my life holds as she did all the way back in 2008.
I don’t know what I would do without Old Silver. I hope that she clings to life as she has done for years. I hope society never moves past what she needs to provide me with joy.
Old Silver has taken pictures and videos of my life behind her viewfinder and screen. She is the color of my life that sits on the other side of the others, holding their beauty in her own.
