Remembering Face & Voice (Not just a photo)

By the time I was 36 years old, I had lost my brother, my best friend and a girlfriend. Almost 5 years later, I find myself wishing I had videos of them. Audio recordings of them. Something more than just some older photos and memories.

At the times they passed, 1080p or 20 megapixel cameras on cell phones wasn’t a thing. For my brother and best friend, I have a grainy News Year Eve party video, from somewhere around 2001, that was filmed on VHS, and then recorded on a cellphone and sent to me. For my former girlfriend, I have a clear recording of her voice, but she was the one filming, so you never see her. Being on my second marriage and having 4 children, I find myself not wanting them to have the same problem.

I’ve never been an overly photogenic person, probably because I’ve been a big ‘ole’ boy my entire life. I’m also not really a social butterfly. I’m slightly uncomfortable in a room for of strangers, but I can manage. This has lead to there not even being a whole lot of photos of me… and very few good ones.

The Story of the Journal

A few years back, my oldest son, after doing his part to bring my granddaughter into this world, sent me a journal with a message written on the inside cover about our lives and our insights. The part about the message that struck me was the final paragraph: “One day we will both be gone and your grandaughter will will find herself with questions. Whatever they’re about, where were we born, how we navigated the most difficult periods in our lives, or why you kept a raggedy old blanket for 40+ years. I want her to have all the answers.”

This got me thinking. I don’t know much about my parents or grandparents. Vague ideas of where they came from and only a little about their siblings.

Legacy – Kids and Grandkids

This brings me to the third and most important reason I’m here. That journal, yeah, I haven’t written a thing in it. I may have to do that one of these days because I don’t envision myself talking about some of the roughest times in my life on YouTube, but… maybe.

This will serve as a video archive. The start of the journal. Fulfilling the goals of leaving something with my voice, my vocal inflections and even some of my mannerisms for my children, grandchildren and maybe even my great grandchildren to reflect on to feel they know me just a little better.

Where do I go from here. Well, the first step was to start a blog and thus, Opasjournal.com was born. It is a great place to start getting some of my thoughts together and to put some of the things that YouTube may not appreciate, but that doesn’t really fit the bill of face, voice and mannerisms, so here we are. Opa’s Journal is born on YouTube.

Aside from my personal goal of video archive, after 50 years, apparently a few people out there seem to think I have a few nuggets of knowledge that I can pass along to the future generations. I’m somewhat of an old soul and hopefully I can say something or put a personal spin on something that may be able to help someone or just brighten their day.

If you are interested in what an older guy may have to say to the younger generation, subscribe to the YouTube channel or the blog. I’d be happy to have you. If you don’t want to hear it, well, I still need to do it for my kids, so I’ll be here if you change your mind.

Be good to one another.

~ Opa

Watch the video: Why I Started Opa’s Journal