Whilst at lunch one day last week with a friend, I pulled out my battered purple leather wallet to pay. As I dug through the various loyalty cards that actually give my wallet some structure, out fell my university ID card.
Oh no! It has my full name on it! Ah well.
She asked why I still carried the card around everywhere with me, 6 years after first starting, and 2 years after actually leaving Aber and therefore having no real use for it since. I gave the usual answer – that it was the only picture I had on an any form of ID card that I actually liked. For the same reason, I would happily shred my NUS card each year as soon as it was out of date, because the photos were normally taken when I wasn’t looking my best (e.g. when I was in the middle of being full of chicken pox spots in second year. Had to live with a picture of a bloated lumpy face all year. Hated it!)
Thinking about it a little more though, I keep it with me to remind me how much I have changed in those six years since the picture was taken.
The picture was taken in the photo booth at Boots in Chester. I probably had been working at the Twirl on a spilt, and had cycled into town as fast as I could to pick up something from Boots. I’m hot, slighty sweaty (nice) and possibly listening to the posing instructions a little too much with a smug little smile. It was around the time I would have gotten my A-Level results, and I had so much ahead of me.
Its strange to think of all that has changed in the time since that picture was taken, but although there were (obviously!) parts I wish had changed (or never happened), I realise I am a much better person than I was when that picture was taken because of those events. I hadn’t even lived away from home at the time. I was crazy about this guy who had once been mine, even just for a few weeks (I know, I know. Thankfully I have grown out of this sort of behaviour, but only recently!) I’m much more confident (I actually can go for meetings that I have set up to do something I actually enjoy. And I can even go on my own! I don’t need a friend to hold my hand (physically at least))
I miss that younger Hayley, and the life she led, but I’m loving where I am at the moment, and I can’t wait for the next steps ahead.
(A similar post was made two years ago in my LJ, but its not exactly the same)
I still have my aber card too!!
its a year younger than yours, but hey..oh and it was taken at the photo booth in chester like yours.
i keep mine as it reminds me of what i looked like skinny!!