Something Everyone Must Do! | Damon Duncan's | Attorney at Law | Husband

Tonight Melissa and I were talking about how many people on Facebook have used childhood pictures as their Facebook profile picture. We weren’t sure if there was a particular reason for doing so and, if there is, we don’t know about it. However, it got me thinking about something that EVERYONE should do.

A little more than three years ago Melissa and I did something that I think we will be proud of for a long time. We scanned all of our baby / childhood pictures. Right before law school Melissa and I had some free time as we waited on the school year to start. We used that time to drive to Elon University every day (about a 40 minute drive) and we went into the School of Communications and used their big flat bed scanners to scan all of our childhood pictures. The process was long and we left most nights at about 2:00 a.m. when the building started shutting down.

After about 3 weeks of non stop 4 or 5 times a week scanning we finally finished. I think we scanned something like 5,000 pictures (at least 4,500 of those were Melissa’s!). We scanned the pictures at about 600 dpi and then put the pictures on about 40 DVDs. We made copies of the DVDs and gave a set to my parents and Melissa’s parents. Doing this made sure that if there was ever any kind fire/floods, etc. that we wouldn’t lose the irreplaceable.

It was long and exhausting but I’m still very happy that we did it. More than anything, the process was a blast. Melissa and I got to look back at each other and laugh at how we used to look and we were able to share stories and memories that would have probably otherwise gone unmentioned.

So I end with this, take the time and scan your family pictures yourself or pay someone else to do it. I’m sure it would be a great gift for parents and family members and I’m sure you’ll look back one day and be glad you did it. Once you scan them, put them “in the cloud” online somewhere. Since those long weeks a few years ago we have also scanned the pictures of grandparents and family members that had passed long before we were around. Do it – you protect your family history and learn a lot by doing it as well.