Instagramming Life

I must admit, when Instagram first launched, I resisted its call.

Instantly embraced by the 'hipsters' and their trademark iPhones, skinny jeans, thick-framed glasses, along with their daddy's money, the application took off.

I was in the midst of finishing up my Writing and Creative Writing degrees at Hope College, stubbornly on the cusp of hipster (not by choice, but by pre-existing style), and anti-iPhone. Thanks to my disgust towards Apple's 'simplistic functionality for everybody (who can afford our ridiculously priced products),' I never bought an iPhone and consequently never joined Instagram in college.

Then, years later, disaster struck.

Instagram on Android...

I was instantly hooked.

Living just outside of Detroit, I found myself surrounded by a landscape of disarray, decay, and despair (the ruins of the once great automotive industry and steadily declining sports teams) mixed with hopeful youthfulness and regenerative methods of self-repression (bars and clubs). [For example]





It was the ultimate canvas.

Basically, I couldn't stop Instagramming life.

A tree became a tecnhicolor representation of nature, a beer bottle became a black and white symbol of hope, and a sunset with some powerlines became the background on my computer (see below).





Nowadays, Instagram is just a way of life. It's something I do when I wake up in the morning, it's something I do when I'm on my lunch break, and it's something I do as I try to fall asleep at night.

It's a reminder of what I've had and what I've left behind. It's a reminder of the good, the bad, the evil, and the downright hilarious.



Oh, Instagram.