Pictures

I have this thing with getting my picture taken. I kind of hate it. Well, I guess I should clarify. Anytime I have to get a posed picture taken, I hate it. I'm not sure why, really.

I remember hearing in an anthropology class that there are some people who don't like their picture taken, because they believe that the camera and the picture is stealing a piece of their soul. This sort of makes sense to me. But I'm not sure that's the reason I don't like getting my picture taken.

Mostly, it just seems so *fake* to me. To sit in front of the camera with a manufactured smile on my face. Just hoping that I don't look like a total loon with this weird, ackward unnatural smile on my face. Feels so unnatural and uncomfortable to me.

I try to fend off any sort of disappointment that might take place by intentionally making really wacky faces whenever my photo is taken. That way, I know ahead of time they'll be odd.

I try to play along with others here and there, however, because I realize that while I have no need to see posed pictures of myself, someone else might appreciate me not being missing in all the photos. And they might appreciate, like, ONE photo with a normal-ish smile. I don't want others to think that I wasn't *there* or something, if I'm not in the pictures. Goodness, no. I want it to be recorded that I was present, too, with all the others.

Please just don't tell me you're taking the photo, so that I can look natural. Even if I look odd, okay?