Wow! I looked pretty good back then

Isn't it funny how we tend to review photos of ourselves with a critical eye, dismissing the majority of them with lines like "I look fat" or "Look at that double chin" or "What's with the circles under my eyes" etc etc? Now, I'm not talking about photos taken after the tender age of forty. I remember saying that about photos taken in my teens and twenties when I was thin and pretty and fairly self confident. In fact, when I sift through old photos of myself and my friends, I often come across pictures I hated at the time and now look at and think, "Wow! I looked pretty damn good."

I am continually amazed by my youthful self-criticism. Of course, it extends right up to the present. What is funny about the present is, I now come across photos taken just a few years ago...even one or two years...and think "I looked pretty good then!" It's that relentless march of the aging image in the mirror vs the ageless image in the photo. We can't go back but we sure can wonder why we did not appreciate what we had when we had it.