It’s come to that point in the year where writing “2016” on paper ceases to be awkward and it becomes more and more apparent that time is flying by. I just officially declared my major (Yay! Journalism!) and I’m looking for a summer internship, but sometimes it still feels like I never even graduated high school. Well alas, time slows for no one, which why I decided that this is my semester to record each day and hack into my memory instead of blankly watching my youth escape into the ether. Who wants to look back at college and only have documentation via Snapchat or Instagram?
At the start of the semester, I downloaded an app called 1SE, which stands for 1 Second Everyday. The premise is that I take a one second video every day and upload it onto the app, which has a calendar showing every day of the year and whether or not I shot a video for a specific day. I programmed the app to send me a notification once in the morning and once at noon, so I always remember to shoot my mini video. I’m no Film & TV student (to my FTV roommates’ disappointment), but the app is very easy to use and my iPhone 6 shoots video quality that, in my eyes, definitely does the job.
Since using the app, I take time from my day to reflect on the best clip to use. Sometimes it’s a clip of a super-exciting win at a hockey game. Other times, it’s just my co-editor at my newspaper making coffee. Some videos are memories I never want to forget, like sharing a Green Monster frappe at Tasty Burger with my best friend or FaceTiming my little sisters, who are back home in Indiana. Other videos are just simple moments, like friends blowing out their birthday candles or footage of the puppy who visits my office on occasion. No matter the quality or importance of the video, I appreciate taking the time to make my day memorable. Not to mention, I’ll have a really cool six-minute video by the end of the year, which is a pretty big return on a very small time investment.
As a journalism student, I’m constantly looking for opportunities to tell the stories of others in the community. But by stitching the little moments of my life into a single, continuous chronological movie, I am creating a personal narrative of my BU experience, which is chock-full of memories I definitely never want to forget.
