Say cheese! You are an NPC in someone else’s life

I have a bit of a ridiculous musing. I’m sure people have talked about this before, but it’s very interesting when you think about it.

Last night, just to pass some time on a fall evening, I went to a local theme park all decorated for Halloween. I snapped a couple of photos. One in particular got me thinking.

It was the Ferris wheel at the park.

When my son was younger, we would go there annually, and each year he would be dressed up in a different Halloween costume. Over the years, we accumulated a nice little collection of photographs of him in different Halloween outfits, all standing in front of that same Ferris wheel.

Here is one of my favorites!

So last night, being there alone, I snapped another photo.

Of course, I got a bit nostalgic and reminiscent about those years, how quickly time passes, and how things change.

But then I noticed something.

There were other people in my picture.

Other people dressed up for Halloween, some with elaborate facial makeup, others just families passing by, enjoying their own evening. And at that one particular moment, when I snapped that photo, those people became part of my phone’s photo collection.

I don’t know who they are. I will most likely never meet them or see them again for the rest of my life.

But I have their image.

And then I thought about something else. There were plenty of other people taking pictures and videos last night. So there’s a pretty good chance that somewhere, on somebody else’s phone, there’s a picture of me.

It’s strange when you think about it.

You really have no control over how many photographs of yourself exist.

You probably think you know most of the pictures you’ve ever been in. The ones you’ve taken yourself, the ones friends have shared with you, the family photographs, the school pictures, the weddings, the vacations.

But there are countless other photographs of you out there.

Maybe they’re stored on somebody’s phone. Maybe they’re sitting on an old thumb drive or computer, or they’re printed photographs tucked away in a scrapbook or a dusty photo album in someone’s attic. Somebody who may not even be alive anymore.

And there you are.

Standing in the background at a restaurant in 1997. Walking past a family posing for a picture at an amusement park in 2005. Sitting at a table behind a couple celebrating their anniversary. Maybe you’re just a blurry face in the crowd at a concert somebody attended 20 years ago.

For your entire life, in public places, you’ve been a background non-player character in somebody else’s story.

And the funny thing is, you’ve probably done the same thing to countless other people.

Think about all the pictures sitting on your phone right now. The vacations, the birthday parties, the weddings, the random photographs you snapped because something caught your eye.

How often have you actually looked at the people in the background?

Those people have entire lives. They have families, jobs, problems, celebrations, tragedies, memories, and stories of their own. Some of them may no longer be alive. Others may have been having the greatest day of their lives at the exact moment you took that picture.

Somebody else might have been having the worst.

And you’ll never know.

It’s almost a little haunting when you think about it. Somewhere out there, in a photograph you’ve never seen, you’re permanently frozen in a moment that meant absolutely nothing to you but perhaps meant everything to somebody else.

Maybe you were smiling. Maybe you were having a bad day. Maybe you were just walking by, completely unaware that someone had pressed a button and preserved that particular second of your existence forever.

So the next time you have a chance, take a peek at some of your old photographs. Look beyond the people you know. Look at those background players, whether they’re at a park, a restaurant, a wedding, or just walking down the street.

Look at their faces and ponder their stories.

Because all the photos you have of yourself tell a story of you, but little did you know, someone else’s story was playing out in your background.