The one about 14,668 photos

I am back like I never left. It has been almost 2 years but time is just a construct. My post today is proudly sponsored by nostalgia. I had always had it on my to do list to delete the ridiculous number of photos I have saved on my iCloud, I know a bunch of them are probably not needed and I could really do without the mental clutter of it. For context, I had 14,668 photos and 2163 videos stored on the cloud as at the time of writing this post. This does not include the 35gb media on my Google cloud, so yes, this was long overdue and necessary.

Anyhow, I finally got started and it took me down a really emotional road. There were photos where I was living my best life without a care in the world; photos of people I no longer speak to, I could tell as the relationships petered out just as the consistency of their presence in my media did in tandem. I had photos of people I once loved with my whole heart and could not now be bothered where on earth they were; photos of a cake that my late sister sent to me on my birthday in 2017 that had me wailing in the middle of the night as I scrolled; photos of dead colleagues and family; photos and videos of weddings I attended where the couple no longer speak or are in the process of separation; photos of friends who were heartbroken at the time and thought for sure they would never recover but are now happily settled with someone; photos of once close friends that are not quite strangers but not friends anymore either.

There were photos of vacations I took despite the possibility of being broke after the expense; photos of my best friend getting engaged and being in my shower planning era, there were friends clocking milestone ages, a 30th birthday surprise party planned by my beloved friends, photos of my nephews as infants and now one towers above me while the other can talk the jacket off an Eskimo; photos of many “talking stages” that never left the terminal; photos of a workplace so toxic I quit without a back up plan but yet I showed up smiling each day; photos of traveling around the world with my friends and having the absolute best time; a particular photo I took after crying my eyes out in 2021 because I thought my brother would die of COVID. I could go on and on but you get the picture…(come on, word play!)

I am sitting here reminiscing about how much of life I have lived and I am grateful all over again for the precious gift of life. I am thankful for all the time that I allowed myself live, truly live without the fear of any judgement, those are the times I now look back on in memories and makes my heart burst at the seams with joy. I looked back and the decisions I regretted were not even up to 3 or 4, these were decisions I probably had analysis paralysis about; a huge chunk of them did not even matter in the grand scheme of where my life is at right now.

Like Linkedin influencers annoyingly say and I shall now too , “let me tell you what this taught be about b2b marketing“. I kid, lmao. On a serious note though, this is what I am taking into 2026 as a result of this walk down memory lane; maybe life is not meant to be perfect. I say this because I live so guardedly now because I feel like I am too old to make any silly mistakes in life, love, career, business, passions and goals amongst other things. I ponder on any action I want to take like 200 times and then fast and pray that all goes well.

Looking back on the beautiful chaos I see in my photos has got me thinking that maybe truly living means all my ducks do not have to be in a row, I can have 3 ducks with 1 sleeping and 2 dancing azonto by the side; maybe it is okay to look back on see how silly or foolish I was with some decisions I made, maybe it’s okay to make myself look silly once in a while to be fully immersed in the said moment; maybe it’s okay to reach out to that person I have not spoken to because of a fall out and be the bigger person; maybe it is okay to love deeply and move on if it turns out otherwise; maybe it is okay to stop chasing perfection and just be. Ultimately, all these chaos and inconsistencies makes me human, makes me fallible and keeps me humble.

Lastly, it will make me go harder on keeping memories, there were times I had felt I was doing the most by capturing moments that means to much to me on video or photos, people say live in the moment and soak it in but even my sharpest memory cannot accurately bring back some memories. And I could also see the period where new people came into my life and it gives me faith again that there is still so much of life to enjoy. Like the popular saying goes, “you are yet to meet all the people that will love you“. I cannot wait to meet all the beautiful people that will make it to my picture gallery in 2026.

So this new year, I will take photos, videos, boomerangs, reels and document my life because I can and my name is on the receipt of this phone, hehehe. Also, that will be all that is left for people to remember me by at some point, just like I now remember my sister and each photo transports me back to the scene and it jumps back to life. I will romanticize my life as much as is possible . I will also try to be childlike, doing the things I truly like whether someone finds it silly or not, after all, there is no award for the most serious adult. Even if there was, I would not get it because I like to laugh and snort, even at inappropriate events,lol.

Leaving you with this, declutter what is needed for the new year, as much as I say these memories are lovely, some absolutely must be deleted so you can move on lighter and free as you start 2026. Delete what is needed, make space for new things, remind yourself of who and whose you are, what makes you tick and go on to smash 2026.

PS: One constant thing in my photos was that I used to be a fashion girlie and I need to get back into that ASAP! I saw photos where I was in the worst state mentally and I still looked good because style is eternal!