Family Photos

• Ayush Mahajan, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2011

It seems to be that every family has to experience the horror of the family photo. The fake smiles and balanced composition of a controlling mother or mother figure. What type of compensation do we get from these photos? One would think, "memories of course, without memories, there are no experiences!" but without the experience, there are no memories in return. Another person would also say, "because it's just darling." Darling is a word to describe something dear and wonderful but there is nothing wonderful about being thrust on a couch and being expected to look like everything is just damn dandy because with families, it obviously isn't.

Don't get me wrong, families are great, but these people, the fruit of your loins or your roots, are the only people in the world you can get mad at and eventually all will be forgiven. In most situations you can't really replace family.

And although you do adore them, (or not) it is almost impossible for your older relatives to see you as an adult much rather so than the child they saw you grow up from. Having expectations of your future is hard on a child, especially when realizing at a fragile age and having to deal also with the standards placed on you, one would either crack from pressure or weasel from it.

So that picture you see, the small faces and smiles, and the bigger ones or the frowns, although they seem perfect to the blind eye, under the cloud of faces are people that may not stand each other but have to for the sake of that photo.