A couple months ago, my mom started a new project. She has been creating digital files from scans of slides containing images from my and my brother's babyhood and childhood. These slides hadn't been viewed since they were placed in slidesheets in binders 20+ years ago.

My mom finished scanning two of about 12 binders so far. Already, there's been such a transformation. Mom and dad are re-living the moments captured in the pictures. They seem like the parents I had 20 years ago. Every time I visit, they beam and glow with pride and joy. They're eager to show me the pictures and share their thoughts. For every picture, they coo and ahh, and go on about what a genius I was... about how they knew from the beginning that I was special, and that I would be successful at anything that I put my heart and mind into.

Echoes from the past... things they said that rang over and over in my ears when I was a child. They repeatedly told me, and I couldn't help but believe them then. I truly believed I was destined to live an extraordinary life.

It's BS to me now... stuff one is obligated to tell the kids so that they don't become useless members of society. I'm suffering the consequences of having believed for too long. I still haven't gotten over the fact that I'm just your average Jen Doe stuck in Geek Valley, just trying to keep herself amused until tomorrow...

From the way my parents talk nowadays, you'd think they still believe I could make something great out of what is currently my boring and insipid existence. They believed in me, even after they realized in High School that I would not pursue a career as a concert pianist. They believed in me, even after my junior year in college, when I abandoned my plans go to medical school and become a dermatologist, so that I could sit front of a computer all day. They believed in me, even after I held on to a bum job in the tech industry for several years.

I suspect that my dad has always believed that I would eventually "come to my senses" and take over his photography business. Younger me tried everything I could to avoid becoming my dad in any respect. After all these years, I'm finally able to see the greatness in his choice of hobbies and occupations. I'm just now beginning to see what photography is to him, and what it could be for me.

Photography blends reality and fantasy in the most perfect way to produce otherworldly beauty unseen before Photoshop. Digital photographs are the ultimate product of a conjunction and co-existence of reality and fantasy. That is SO ME!

Suddenly, I realize that I would only be so lucky to become my dad... to have his talents, to have his career. And he would be overjoyed to hear me say that.